Oka owners group newsletter

All is well now the OKA is 100%, we had a great Christmas. Natacha, Justin and Xander stayed with Dominique and Tim. Tim’s parents, Marjorie and David stayed with us in our housesitting house. So we had a great family gathering with the highlight of course: our grandson Xander. He’s absolutely beautiful and huge. Nearly 10kg not yet 5 months old! Not fat though, just big and cuddly, a happy contented baby.

Will you accept New Year’s wishes in February? Sorry for being so late. As you probably know: the OKA is for sale, although we’re still off on another trip in 3 weeks time, going North, probably along the West coast. We’re selling because we’re housesitting for Dominique and Tim for half a year from October and after that we’re going overseas for 4 or 5 months, also we’re getting a bit older and want more comfort, but that’s a bit hard to admit. Hope this letter is not too long, wanted to let you experience our lifestyle. Be good, stay healthy and be kind to each other,

love from Walter & Elly

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Words of Wisdom from Collyn Rivers:

Herewith a few thoughts regarding OKA reliability etc – from the point of view of owning one for eight years – and also as an ex-GM research engineer. I think there are two main issues.

Firstly – the original XT and LT OKAs were well-designed but did have a few design flaws. These are well known and most OKAs have long since been modified. It is certainly prudent to check and update where necessary. These problems are:

1. The original direct drive starter motor is not really up to the job. Should be replaced by the far cheaper but more reliable geared unit readily available from Perkins dealers.

2. The single shock absorbers on many early OKAs are inadequate. Replacing these by big Ralph units transforms the ride and handling – particularly ‘lurching’. Mine have been on the vehicle for six years and are still in perfect condition.

3. Original road springs are marginal. There is a costly OKA replacement set, or one simply adds two leaves and have them reset.

4. Some front axle/spring mounting plates are prone to cracking if the U-bolts are torqued to the called-for 160 lb.ft. There are stronger OKA replacements but its no big problem to reinforce the originals.

5. The original steering box problem is well known and it is probable that all faulty units have long since been replaced

6. Many people (especially tour operators have problems with the transfer box on the later vehicles – but I gather this is now readily fixable by upgrading the thrust bearings etc.

7. Some coach-bodied vehicles are prone to minor rusting of the bottom few cm of the sides (mine is no exception). This readily fixed by cutting off that section and replacing it by checker plate (several Club vehicles have had this done – and it looks good).

The 16-inch tyres OKAs run well on 900 x 16 Michelin XY road tyres. I get about 70,000 km from a set. Pressures about 60 psi. The 19-inch wheels and tyres provide more stable road performance but are not remotely as effective off-road. Tour operators prefer them – but have 13 people available to push if bogged.

Secondly: there seem to be a few problems caused by poor maintenance. The U-bolt nuts seem prone to corroding on the U-bolt threads. If checked, there appears to be adequate torque – but I have encountered two other OKAs (apart from my own) where the bolts were in fact quite loose, but the nuts virtually locked solid. I suspect that was the cause of an axle literally breaking loose – as reported in the last Newsletter. I checked mine very early on. It took a two-metre breaker bar and all my strength to break the nuts free. Having done so by about half a turn I found the U-bolts were so loose they could be moved by hand. I fitted new U-bolts all round using a graphite anti- spalling compound to prevent re-occurrence.

The front bolts seem less prone to this problem but need re-torquing every 5000 km or so after my regular trips from Broome across the Centre to the east coast.

I had one rear drive shaft break after the vehicle was about two years old but suspect that the transmission had been previously abused as the broken shaft appeared to have had a long-standing semi-fracture before totally shearing. I have had a Detroit Locking diff since then with no further problems. The front Air Locker works superbly – but is rarely needed.

The original gear change works extremely well if correctly adjusted. I simply do not understand why anyone would want to change it. It is ultra-light (I can change gear just using finger and thumb).

I needed to replace the big nylon cones in the ‘king-pin’ assembly about 20,000 km back – and have just replaced the steering damper. But apart from that the vehicle has been totally trouble-free for the past five years and 75,000 or so km. This is despite spending almost all of its life off-road up here where I live in the Kimberley (and includes the last six across-Oz journeys. These take me about six days – Broome to Brisbane via Alice Springs).

I suspect there could be some element of truth regarding mine vehicles being abused. My own (no 184) fortunately spent only four-five months as a ‘mine hire’ vehicle. Despite this it appeared to have had no service whatever in that time.

I also suggest that some owner problems are due to running way over the designed and legal maximum of 5.5 tonnes. To my certain knowledge several converted OKAs are close to 7 tonnes!

Mine, with 12,000 lb winch, 380 litre fuel tanks, 220 litre water tanks, twin spare wheels etc weighs only a tad over 5.00 tonne (with tanks full) – achieved by building the entire interior of powder coated aluminium.

I am now reluctantly selling my OKA – not because I want to but simply because my advancing years (now 75) make it increasingly impracticable to use. I feel that it and any other well-set up and well maintained OKA is a sound reliable vehicle.

Trust this of interest Collyn Rivers

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For Sale

Dear Marj and Lloyd,

It's time to be realistic and do some things that sadly I do not want to do, but the OKA has hardly been used since Noel's passing, it is too high for me to drag out farm purchases and I live in dread of having a flat tyre and being able to change it on the side of the road. The Landcruiser is on its last legs, nearly half a million kms and there is some thing drastically wrong with the steering apparatus. While I was recuperating from eye surgery at the daughters at Geurie, I paid a deposit on a VW transporter twin cab with a tipping body, that should cope with all my problems, hence the OKA sale. It will have 12 months rego, due 1/4/05 but I will renew it before sale. It is 1997 model, 181,000kms, twin batteries, twin fuel tanks (180lts + capacity), small crane/lifting device mounted on tray, twin cab etc. pus a few spares Noel carried, and seatcovers. I'm asking $45000 ono. Also the houseboat is for sale, with or without the OKA. Another thing I cannot manage by myself and no one in the family have the necessary licenses to tow it. I will try to find photos of the two and send them on, but if you could spread the word that they are available, I would be most grateful.

Lesile

This joke is again courtesy of John Hendriks:

Several men are having a drink in the golf club. A mobile phone on the bar rings and a man engages the hands-free speaker-function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen.

MAN: "Hello"

WOMAN: "Darling, it's me. Are you at the club?"

MAN: "Yes"

WOMAN: "I'm shopping just now and I've found this beautiful leather coat. It's only £1,000. Is it OK if I buy it?"

MAN: "Yep, go ahead if you like it that much."

WOMAN: "I also dropped in at the Mercedes dealership and saw the new 2005 models. I saw one I really liked."

MAN: "How much?"

WOMAN: "£65,000."

WOMAN: "Brilliant! Oh, and one more thing ...... The house we wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $950,000."

MAN: "Well, then go ahead and give them an offer, but just offer £900,000."

WOMAN: "OK. I'll see you later! I love you!"

MAN: "Bye, I love you, too." The man hangs up. The other men in the room are looking at him in astonishment.

Then he smiles and asks: "Anyone know whose phone this is?"

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Hi Everyone,

OKA OWNERS GROUP (PUTTING PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT FIRST)

NEWSLETTER May/June 2005

Well we are apologising again for being late. The excuses are drought, which isn’t broken but is certainly bent over the last couple of weeks. With more rain forecast, maybe a break is near. The other reason is computer troubles. We’ve been waiting for a sattelite disk (care of the Govt.!) so we can send and receive emails and source the internet at a reasonable speed with Broadband, and the technician turned up a couple of weeks ago and put it in. Since then we have had nothing but trouble, and can’t get him back again. As well, we keep getting little messages about a shortage of memory, so decided to replace said computer with the latest and best, but that too isn’t working the way it should either. The computer was sent on transport, and has disappeared into the void, so we are forced to keep using the old one, with no Internet access at all! We are planning to send a disk off to Rowena as she has kindly offered to send the newsletter on.

Up until now we haven’t been at all sure that we could get away this year, but now plan to leave on July 1, and think the Smithards will be with us for part of our trip and if anyone else would like to join us, you would be very welcome. We hope to meet up with as many OKA owners as possible in Kalgoorlie on the 1^st weekend in August. There are sure to be Oka’s travelling about at that time of year, so if you can make it, we would love to see as many of you as possible there. Contact Robin Wade for more details or we may now be contacted by Sat. Phone on: 0147 149350 in the evenings while we are travelling . We’ll call it our National Rally, but maybe we are being a bit ambitious there but we would like to see how many we can muster.

We have been told that some of our members have been pulled over by the RTA, and told to put the exhaust up in the air, or face a hefty fine. One owner stated that his machine didn’t perform as well in this configuration, but another says it makes no difference to his. For ourselves, we don’t have enough space between the cab and the loading rack so we have shelved the problem for the moment.

We have been looking for a new set of tyres for our OKA, not too aggressive, and something that can be matched anywhere in Australia. So far we haven’t had much luck, and don’t know if it is just because of where we live. The standard answer is “No, that size is out of production”. At the moment the best advice seems to be to use 17.5 rims, and get a bigger choice of tyres. With tubes, if you have a flat, its flat, whereas with tubeless you get less heat, and if you get a flat, you may be able to put a plug in the hole and go again. The bigger 19.5 one-piece rims don’t seem to be popular with some tour operators, but if your operation is on reasonable roads and you would like a set, if you advertise in this newsletter or the forum you may be able to find a set second hand.

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As members have joined our group, we have passed on to them a list of the availability of parts that was put together for us by Bob Etherington in NSW. This is now a few years old, and we would like to add to it and update it. We know that the Oka was built mostly with readily available parts, and we can of course source these from Oka, but it is usually quicker and cheaper to obtain them from a local dealer. Would you please put your heads together and send us a list of parts you have managed to get hold of from other sources, if possible with part numbers and the models they came from, so that we can make a list that will have suppliers from the various States. Andrew Kovacs has even sourced parts from overseas, using the Internet, and he has offered to send a list of these. When we have this we can also post it on our Website so that it is to hand at any time.

Please note the message from Rowena about the auction of a painting to raise funds for the Website. The painting is pictured below, and I think it would look great on our wall!

Lloyd & Marj Parsons

Hi Marj,

To help raise funds for our website my father has donated a painting to auction. We have placed photos and information on the website. I was wondering if you could please place the following information plus attached photo in the next newsletter. That would be great, thanks!

Rowena

Please support the OKA Owners Group only Auction of a painting by Ross Paterson, a famous water colour landscape painter.

The Auction will start at $250.00 and finish on the 30/9/2005

This painting is valued at over $450.00

Your support in this will keep our website going! To place a bid, please contact John Hendriks on: email: [e-mail]

Ph: 02 4754 2606

Painting size: 50cm x 41cm watercolour which includes frame.

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Low Water Sensor

Hi Lloyd, have just read the newsletter & you mentioned you had put in low level alarms on your vehicles. Who did you get to do the job? Is it the job of a radiator specialist to tap into the radiator or an auto elect?? I have it on my list of jobs that need doing after cooking the engine last trip. Was it easy to access in the OKA, or is it one of those hard to get at jobs ?

Regards Roger Thurecht.

Hi Roger,

We find the water low level sensor a real asset. They "beep" and a red light flashs every time the ignition is switched on, just to tell you they are still working.

On two of our vehicles, the Land Rover Discovery and the Oka, we have them fitted to the expansion tank, as on these vehicles the tank is higher than the radiator and motor, so should give an early warning of water loss

Its not a hard job to fit to the Oka; anyone can do it but it is probably more a mechanic's job than an auto- electrician. It is, however, a fiddly and time-consuming job. The grille has to be removed to get at the tank to undo the bolts to take it out from the top, and then the dash has to be removed so that the tank can be lifted out from the top. A hole is then drilled in it to fit the sensor, you fit the buzzer part in the cab where you can see it and connect the power. This may be a small job on some vehicles, but with the Oka the time is taken pulling things to pieces and putting them back together. But it might save a cooked motor!

Lloyd

Following on from this discussion about water, I will pass this on as well! We recently found that our

radiator water level was dropping, although not by any amount and not all the time. Not enough to

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activate the low water level sensor, anyway! Lloyd was unable to find where the water was going, so he took it to a friend who is a 4x4 mechanic, and he unscrewed the radiator cap and screwed on his pressure-testing gadget and gave it a few pumps. He could then see coolant was coming from the heater tap. (Probably didn’t happen when the heater was turned off.)

Friend then dismantled the glove box, took the tap out and replaced the O-rings (we really should have relaced the tap, but we are running short of time before we leave on our trip!) and put it back in place. He then pressure tested the system again, and found that there was a small leak around the top radiator hose, so he tightened that up as well, and tested again. This time there was no water leak, so we are pretty sure that our cooling system is now pretty good.

Further to the subject of water sensors, I think we had better go a bit further, and I might be able to be corrected on this! It seems that there are 2 types of expansion tanks – the types that are under pressure and are more or less an extension of the top radiator tank and the other types that Landcruisers have where the water under pressure goes into the expansion tank and then is sucked back into the system as it cools down. On our Oka and the discovery we have the water sensor in the expansion tank, but sometimes I think it would be better in the top of the main radiator tank. Maybe someone else may be more qualified than me to give their views on which way would be best. Lloyd

Hi we received the newsletter in the mail - thank you very much. We don't know why you couldn't email it to us as we have a very active email and check it daily when at home. I've added a short note from

us.

We are the owners of OKA 74 and absolutely love our vehicle. We have done some modifications to it. As a result of our rear spare wheel shearing off somewhere between Hungerford and Bourke we have had to come up with a new way of carrying our rear spare. Thanks to MAG Engineers in Fyshwick in Canberra we have a really beaut lifter on the back of the vehicle onto which the wheel is attached. Therefore no heavy lifting of the wheel and the cost of it was much cheaper than that for the usual OKA rear wheel contraption. We also had steps made for getting into the rear of the OKA to make it easier to climb in and out again thanks to MAG. Whilst inside we've added an upper shelf above the bed and added reading lights at both ends of the bed. Now we re looking forward to a two week trip to Carnavon Gorge the last half of May.

Rasa & Mindaugas Mauragis>

Hi Lloyd and Marge, sorry we haven’t keep in regular contact since meeting up with you guys in Innamincka last year, although I do enjoy receiving the newsletters and knowing what everyone has been up to! We have been busy as we realise is everyone. We have actually decided to stay in Weipa for a few months. I thought we should let you guys know we will be based here for a few months in case anyone is doing a Cape Trip and needs a friend up here. There is another OKA in town also, I haven’t had a chance to meet up with him yet but assume we will get to know everyone in time. The weather is great at present, warm days and cool nights – I am not sure how long this lasts but until November or December at least I hope, and I am told the fishing is great just about all the time! We hope you keep up the newsletters even though they must be time consuming at times for you guys.

Warm regards, Noeline and Jack

SOLAR PANELS versus EXTRA BATTERIES

Lloyd recently contacted Val Rigoli, a friend from the Gold Coast area who used to build slide-on campers, and now supplies fridges and other camping electricals, to get some expert advice about what kind and size of solar panel to fit to our Oka. Lloyd uses a CPAP for sleep apnoea, and at present uses a 125 amp/hour deep cycle battery for this, and of course we also need power for our 12v Waeco fridge and a couple of small lights.

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To our surprise, Val suggested that maybe we don’t really need solar panels, and that our needs could be served just as well with 2 X 125 amp/hour AGM (Absorbed Glass Matt) batteries. (At present we run 2 ordinary truck batteries besides our deep cycle battery). His reasons for this are that these AGM batteries are quickly recharged, and that unlike ordinary truck batteries, they can be discharged to a large degree (?90%) without harming the battery, can be left unattended for long periods of time and have a large usable capacity. An added bonus is that they are safe to use in the camper if we should need to (we don’t). He also says that for charging these AGM batteries, we can’t mix battery types, and that perhaps we should also fit one of his battery meters.

To obtain more information, you could look up his website and study the advantages further. Val uses language that is easily understood, and maintains that the batteries he sells, which are made in China, are widely sold throughout Europe and are very competitively priced. Val even offered to put some on transport for us.

You can find more information about these batteries on: www.fridge-and-solar.net/agm

OKA OWNERS GROUP – Membership List

Up dated 001/05/2005

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

NEW SOUTH WALES

Owners

Address

Contact Details

Vehicle

Harvey

Rocky & Kylie

34 Arthur Circle Forrest

ACT 2603

[e-mail]

Mauragis, Rasa and Mindaugas

28 Moodie St Farrer ACT 2607

Ph 02 62363447 mobiles - Mindaugas 0419 476207 Rasa 0409 323216 email: [e-mail]

Owners

Address

Contact Details

Vehicle

Baker, Sid & Wendy

33 Stevenson Ave Mayfield West NSW 2304

Ph: 02 4960 0920

Email: [e-mail]

OKA . #186 Single Cab

Brakespear, Alan & Noreen

25 Rynan Ave, Edmonson Park NSW

Ph: 0298250652 Mob: [phone]

Burrowes

Jeffrey & Merryn

140 Tennyson Rd Mortlake

NSW 2137

Ph: 02 9736 2633 Fax: [phone] [e-mail] [e-mail]

Single cab

Chadwick Wayne

71 St Clair Ave St Clair

NSW 2759

Ph: 0296701930

Mob: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Coach1995 LT94A

Clarke, John & Dot

P O Box 37

Old Bonalbo NSW 2469

Ph: 02 66653211

Cochrane

Mark & Alison

61 Burringbar Street Mullimbimby

NSW 2482

Mob: [phone]

Fax: [phone] [e-mail] www.markcochrane.com.au

G.C.

Gary & Terry

Wollahra NSW

Ph: 02 9373 1584 Mob: [phone] [e-mail]

Cocks

Rod

Murwoollimbah NSW

Ph: 02 6672 7623 [e-mail]

Curtin

Jim & Julie

P.O. Box 350 Engadine NSW 2233

Ph: 02 9771 4303

Mob: [phone] [e-mail]

Etherington

Bob & Sue

1139 East Kurrajong Rd East Kurrajong NSW 2758

Email: [e-mail]

#330

Frost

Jack & Viv

Greenish, Tim & Brenda

P.O. Box 176 Jamberoo NSW 2533

Ph: 02 4236 0934 [e-mail]

5, Cressy Road, Ryde NSW 2112

Email: [e-mail]

Harden, Gwen

PO Box 186 NAMBUCCA HEADS NSW 2448

Ph: 02 6569 5958

Email: [e-mail]

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Haywood, Coke & Helen

P.O. Box 9

Moombi NSW 2353

Ph: 02 67603179

Hendriks

John & Maree

219 Hawkesbury Rd Winmalee

NSW 2777

Ph: 02 4754 3604 Mob: [phone] [e-mail] www.carsbyweb.com.au/

Hes

Walter & Elly

18BardiaRoad,Shortland NSW 2307

Ph: 0428 389239 [e-mail]

Hession

Michael & Virginia

36 Nelson Road Nelson

NSW 2765

Ph: 02 9679 1463 Fax: [phone] W: 02 9809 5754 [e-mail]

Hancock, Bob, Kathy, Ian & Ava

19 Raymond Ave, Northmead NSW 2164

Ph: 0296307934 H 0298905263 H/F 0296328155 B 0296328252B/F Email: [e-mail]

Hosking

Arthur & Janice

110 Fitzroy Street Dubbo

NSW 2830

Ph: 02 6884 2266

Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail]

Howse

Larry & Colleen

20 Parkes Drive Korara NSW 2450

Jones

Owen & Sue

24 The Crescent Beecroft NSW 2119

Ph: 02 9876 2434 Fax:[phone] [e-mail]

Moffat , Sam

PO Box 1003

Neutral Bay NSW 2089

Ph: 02 9413 3000 Fax: [phone] Mob: [phone]

Email: [e-mail] www.truckmania.com.au

Lambrou, Sam Director Frontier Safaris

NSW

02 9319

3458 Email: [e-mail] [e-mail]