Dongfeng Captain D9

The cabin layout of the Dongfeng Captain D9 stays true to its purpose of being a functional truck, which feels practical and spacious in its layout, but feels a bit old-school in its design and equipment levels. The all-grey cabin of the Captain D9 has hard plastics all around, which don’t feel upmarket, but get the job done.

The driver’s cockpit of the Dongfeng Captain D9 has an ergonomically-placed four-spoke steering wheel with a comprehensive analogue instrument console behind it. The centre console, which is slightly inclined towards the driver's side, accommodates a 1-DIN audio system and controls for the manual AC. The truck also gets a decent amount of storage space, including the rectangular spaces within the dashboard, above the seats and gloveboxes in the co-passenger side of the dashboard.

As mentioned above, unlike other smaller-sized models from the Captain range of light-duty trucks, the Dongfeng Captain D9 has the proper stance of a medium-duty truck with larger dimensions and a more conventional truck-like profile. It means that the Dongfeng Captain D9 has a squarish design at the front while having a tapered canopy at the top for additional headroom and overall load-carrying capacity.

The upper half of the front profile of the Dongfeng Captain D9 has a slightly curved windscreen with rounded edges, while having blacked-out grab handles below it, placed adjacent to the mounts of the windscreen wipers. The sides of the lower half of the front profile of the Dongfeng Captain D9 have slim and vertical trapezoidal air curtains recessed within them for better aerodynamic efficiency while being driven at higher speeds.

In between the air curtains on the sides of the front profile, the Dongfeng Captain D9 gets a trapezoidal grille with tapered lower edges and a thick silver garnish strip running across its width in the middle. The trapezoidal halogen headlamps, along with smaller-sized halogen fog lamps are placed one over the other on the corners of the body-coloured front bumper at the bottom. The side profile of the Dongfeng Captain D9 includes twin window panels, with the rear quarter glass panel having a tapering design at the bottom.

With steel leaf springs accompanied by hydraulic double-acting telescopic shock absorbers at both front and rear, the Dongfeng Captain D9 comes equipped with dual-circuit full-air brakes, while also having vacuum vacuum-assisted exhaust auxiliary brake and spring-actuated, hand-operated parking brake on offer. This 10-wheeled truck gets 9.00R20 tyres for all the 10 steel wheels on offer.

Dongfeng has chosen to rely on Cummins for the powertrain duty of the Captain D9, as a result of which this medium-duty truck gets a 4.5-litre four-cylinder diesel engine powering its rear wheels. Currently the largest four-cylinder diesel engine in Dongfeng’s lineup, this 4.5-litre engine generates 180 bhp of maximum power and 650 Nm of maximum torque, while being paired to an 8-speed manual gearbox.

The basicness of the Dongfeng Captain D9 is very evident in the lack of safety features on offer for the Dongfeng Captain D9, as the truck gets only an engine immobilizer and three-point seat belts for occupant safety and vehicle security.

For its size and price, the Dongfeng Captain D9 feels quite conventional, with a tried-and-tested Cummins engine powering it, along with a sturdy set of mechanicals on offer. While we wish that the overall quality levels could have been better, Dongfeng has played it safe where it matters the most – the engine and chassis of the Captain D9.