Here’s the thing about the phrase you just typed into a search bar—“daihatsu hijet fuel tank capacity” isn’t trivia for kei–truck nerds, it’s the real-world math that decides how often you peel off a jobsite to find a pump, whether your weekend trail run needs a jerry can, and how confidently you can run deliveries without playing roulette with the gauge. I’ve lived with, wrenched on, and researched Hijets across generations—from carb’d S83P workhorses to the latest S500-series trucks—and the answer isn’t one number. It’s a lineage. The tank changed with regulations, packaging, and model intent. If you’re here to sort out liters, gallons, and a clean sense of what your specific truck actually holds, settle in. We’ll make it practical, we’ll keep it historical, and we’ll make sure it’s accurate.
Start with the trucks most Americans know best: the 1990–1994 era, the classic seventh-gen Hijet. If you’ve scored a tidy S82P or S83P, you’re looking at a tank that was modest even by kei standards, right around thirty-five liters—call it roughly 9.2 U.S. gallons—paired with a simple carbureted three-cylinder. That number isn’t a guess; period Japanese spec listings for S83P-grade “Hijet Pick” trims pin capacity at thirty-five liters, and it tracks with how those trucks behave in the wild when you brim them from dry. (中古車のガリバー, carsensor)
Then came a watershed in 1994. Kei rules evolved, safety expectations crept upward, and Daihatsu’s eighth-generation S100/S110 trucks arrived with a more modern take on a very old brief. Here, the “daihatsu hijet fuel tank capacity” conversation jumps to about thirty-eight liters—right at 10.0 gallons—on both 2WD S100P and 4WD S110P specs in contemporary Japanese data. If you’ve ever wondered why your ’96–’98 truck seems to go meaningfully farther between fills than your buddy’s earlier carb model on the same route, this is a big part of it. (Spectank, Goo-Net)
The late-’90s and 2000s cemented the pattern. The ninth-gen S200/S210 trucks launched for 1999 kept that larger tank, and the 2004–2014 facelifted S201/211 era did, too. Thirty-eight liters remained the default for typical Japanese-market Hijet trucks across grades, regardless of whether you had a three-pedal farmer’s special or a light-duty urban runabout. If you’re running an S201P today and you’re measuring about ten gallons from empty to click-off, you’re exactly where the catalog says you should be. (Goo-Net, UcarPAC)
The modern story is different. When Daihatsu rebooted the truck line for 2014 as the S500/S510 series—with a stiffer structure, new packaging, and fresh electronics—the official spec sheet took the tank down a notch. The S500/S510 Hijet Truck carries 34 liters, just shy of nine U.S. gallons, across standard and Jumbo grades. Daihatsu’s own technical sheet spells it out, and real-world owners corroborate the range you’d expect from that quantity of fuel. If your newer truck shows a shorter distance-to-empty than the older rigs in your fleet, it’s not your imagination; the tank is smaller from the factory. (Daihatsu, UcarPAC)
That takes care of the trucks, but the Hijet name doesn’t stop at a drop-side bed. Vans wear the badge, too, and van tanks are not the same story. The mid-2000s Atrai and Hijet Cargo variants commonly carried about forty liters—roughly 10.6 gallons—giving passenger and commercial vans a range advantage that drivers noticed on longer hauls. Depending on year and exact variant, you’ll find catalog entries and spec sheets showing 40 L capacity for S320G Atrai Wagons and S321V Cargo, and then, in later official documentation for the most recent Cargo, a move to 38 L. So if you’re cross-shopping a Cargo and a Truck and the dash looks familiar, don’t assume the same refill numbers; vans often carry a little more. (Goo-Net, Daihatsu)
Once you grasp that broad map—~35 L for early-’90s trucks, ~38 L through the S100/S110/S200/S201 era, and 34 L for the modern S500/S510, with vans sitting higher around 38–40 L depending on generation—the rest becomes practical ownership. Converting liters to gallons matters when you live in the U.S.: 35 L is about 9.2 gallons, 38 L is about 10.0, 34 L is just under 9.0, and 40 L lands near 10.6. Those numbers, plus your real-world economy, let you sketch an honest range. A healthy S110P truck driven sanely can feel like it runs forever on ten gallons; an S500 with its 34-liter tank relies on its lighter weight and efficient KF engine to deliver similar trip counts between pumps rather than pure capacity.
As a historian it’s hard not to admire how these choices mirror the decades. The early trucks were designed for simple routes and short hops—farm roads, construction sites, factory yards—so thirty-five liters made sense in 1990. By the mid-’90s, the market asked these trucks to shoulder bigger days on the road, and thirty-eight liters answered. Fast forward to 2014, and lighter bodies, better atomization, smarter timing, and modern emissions controls let Daihatsu cut a little tank volume without making the owner’s life worse. It’s a very kei solution: remove mass where you can, find efficiency where you must, and keep the footprint tiny.
There’s also a human side to “capacity” that spec sheets don’t capture. Old mechanical sender units get lazy. Float arms wear grooves. Grounds corrode. Filler necks develop kinks after a hard life. All of those things change how much fuel actually makes it to the tank before the pump clicks, or how the gauge interprets the top quart of the tank. I’ve seen freshly imported S83P trucks that “only take eight gallons” simply because the filler hose had collapsed at the bend after three decades of heat and gravity, and I’ve seen S201 trucks that read a quarter for a comically long time because the sender rheostat had a dead patch. Capacity is a number; usable capacity is a system.
What about special body styles—the Jumbo cabs, the deck vans, dump conversions? Here, Daihatsu’s modern documentation is refreshingly consistent. On the S500/S510 platform, the 34-liter figure applies whether you’re in a standard or Jumbo; ladder and dump hardware don’t magically add liters. So if you’re eyeing a Jumbo for the extra cabin storage and you’ve heard rumors of a bigger tank, you can file that under “internet lore” and plan your route like any other S500 truck owner. (UcarPAC)
If you’re working with an older truck and want to verify your own rig, there’s a classic method that doesn’t involve spreadsheets. Run the truck down to a consistent low-fuel position—ideally just as the warning lamp stabilizes—fill slowly and completely, and write down how many liters went in. Do that for three tanks in a row with the same pump, same angle on the pad, and the same patience at the handle, and you’ll know your usable volume within a liter. It’s dull science, but it’s the only way to strip out variables like pump sensitivity and filler-neck personality. The result often lines up beautifully with the factory number: around 35 L on an S83P, about 38 L on S100/S110/S201 trucks, and about 34 L on S500/S510. If you’re consistently short by several liters, you’ve probably found a vent, filler, or sender problem worth fixing.
For owners planning range rather than just capacity, a couple of touchstones help. A well-tuned S83P with stock tires and a gentle right foot might deliver mileage in the mid-teens km/L, which turns a 35-liter tank into a practical 500-kilometer day if you’re avoiding highways and big grades. S100/S110/S201 trucks with their 38-liter tanks stretch farther on the same routes, which is why farmers and delivery drivers fell in love with them. And on the modern S500/S510 trucks, even with a 34-liter tank, owners routinely report range in the 500-plus-kilometer ballpark thanks to efficiency gains; some spec compilers peg the factory range estimate right around 530 km in 2WD trims. None of this is magic; it’s capacity multiplied by economy, and the latter is just as sensitive to air in your tires and a clean air filter as you’d expect. (Greeco Channel)
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably the kind of Hijet owner who prefers doing to guessing—and that’s where parts support matters just as much as knowing your numbers. If your tank is scaly inside from storage, if you’re chasing a sender that lies, or if your filler hose has the consistency of overcooked udon, you’ll find what you need in our focused Hijet catalog. For the wildly popular 1994–1999 trucks, you’ll be at home browsing the Daihatsu Hijet S100/S110 Parts & Accessories collection—the era that brought the 38-liter tank into the mainstream of the lineup. And if you’re new to the platform or hunting across generations, pull up a chair and dig into Daihatsu Hijet Mini Truck: A Comprehensive Guide, which maps out chassis codes, drivetrains, and parts interchange the way enthusiasts actually use them.
A word on the “my friend swears it’s eleven gallons” bar-stool debate. Sometimes people mix truck and van data. Sometimes they fill the tank at a steeply sloped farm pad and squeeze in an extra liter or two. Sometimes they’re reading a catalog for an export-market 1.3-liter Piaggio-built variant and thinking it applies to a Japanese-market kei truck. The safest way to cut through the noise is to triangulate your chassis code with period-correct Japanese sources and modern factory sheets. For S110P listings, Japanese catalog pages and engine spec sites repeat 38 L. For S83P, they print 35 L. For S201-series trucks, they show 38 L. And the current S500/S510 official Daihatsu sheet states 34 L across the board. That’s the spine you can trust. (Spectank, 中古車のガリバー, Goo-Net, Daihatsu)
Why does any of this matter beyond a trivia night? Because the tank figure is where a lot of ownership decisions start. If your business runs fixed routes, you plan stops by liters, not vibes. If you’re building a trail rig and thinking auxiliary fuel, you need to know what the stock system offers before you add weight. If you’re restoring a ’90s truck and want it to feel like it did when it rolled out of Osaka, a correct-capacity tank and a sender that reads right are the details that make the machine feel honest. The “daihatsu hijet fuel tank capacity” headline sounds clinical, but it turns out to be one of the most human-scale numbers on the spec sheet: it shapes how often you break rhythm and how far you feel you can go.
I’ll leave you with a tidy mental model you can carry into the garage. If you’re looking at an early-’90s cab with small mirrors, skinny tires, and a carb, your truck likely swallows about 35 liters when truly empty. If the fenders are a touch more modern and the chassis tag reads S100 or S110—or the later S200/S201—you can budget about 38 liters. If the body lines look like the current generation, the dash is more upright, and you’re in the S500/S510 world, think about 34 liters. Vans live in their own lane at roughly 38–40 liters depending on year, with many mid-2000s Atrai and Cargo models at the higher end. With that in your pocket, every fill-up will make sense, and so will your range logs and maintenance plans. (Spectank, Goo-Net, Daihatsu)
If you need help sourcing a clean replacement tank, a sender that doesn’t lie, or the right hoses and clamps for your chassis code, we keep the good stuff organized where you’d expect it, and we test fit what we sell. That’s how we ship parts we’re willing to run on our own trucks. And if you’re still mid-hunt and want the entire Hijet story in one place—fuel, frames, engines, years, and the weird limited editions Japan hid from the world—spend a quiet evening with our guide. It’s all the context that makes one simple number mean something every mile you drive.
Quick source notes for the spec-hungry: period Japanese catalogs and spec pages list S83P trucks at 35 L, S100/S110 and S201 trucks at 38 L, and the factory S500/S510 sheet at 34 L, while many Atrai/Hijet Cargo vans run 40 L in the mid-2000s and 38 L in the most recent factory document for the Cargo. Those are the numbers I rely on when I build range plans or baseline a truck fresh off the boat. (中古車のガリバー, Spectank, Goo-Net, Daihatsu)
And because you came here searching the exact phrase, let’s say it plainly once more for the people in the back: the Daihatsu Hijet fuel tank capacity is not one size fits all—expect roughly 35 L for early ’90s trucks, roughly 38 L for late-’90s through early-2010s trucks, roughly 34 L for the modern S500/S510, and roughly 38–40 L for vans, depending on year. If you’re building, buying, or just verifying, that’s the roadmap.