Oka owners group newsletter
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Possibly meet at Lake William Hovell picnic area, Friday evening or Saturday morning. Please bring firewood. Contact Rowena Paterson for further details. Ph: 03 5823 2732 (ah) 03 5833 5710 (work) Email: rowenap@g-mwater.com.au SYDNEY OKA RALLY When: Saturday 25th March, 2pm to when the last person leaves. Where: Bob and Sue Etherington have kindly offered the use of their property at 1139 East Kurrajong Road, East Kurrajong. They have a big shed so if the day is a bit inclement it will not be a problem. The purpose: of the afternoon is to allow fellow owners to meet and share their interest in the OKA vehicle. To discuss, look at, look under, find out what others are doing with their vehicles, what they have found to be of use/ no use, where to get parts/service, etc,etc, etc. Bob has offered to show how easy it is to repair a tyre in the bush with some basis tools, adjusting wheel bearings, and the tools and spare parts that should be carried on an extended trip. It is not a day just “for the boys”, the girls are also encouraged to come along. Please bring: something for afternoon-tea. For the stayers, Bob will light up the Barbque about 5.30, you might come prepared with some sausages or steak. Suggestion If each person, who comes along, could type up a list of modifications they have carried out, any major repairs, accessories they have fitted, trips they have done, etc this could be taped to the passenger window in a plastic sleeve, so that others can read it and so find out any information they are after. Remember this is a "Bring Your Own Everything" day, so that we don’t impose too much on our hosts. Please CONTACT Michael Hession to let us know if you are coming Tel 02.9809.5754(Bus.) 02.9679.1463(Hm) michael@godfrey-engraving.com.au VICTORIAN OKA RALLY - WOODS POINT 6TH –9TH JANUARY 2006 Written by Rowena Paterson We had beaut weather, 9 OKAs and a great camping spot just a few k’s from the township of Woods Point for our high country trip this year. A few members met together on Friday at Jamieson (about 60 km north of Woods Point) including myself, Geoff Wilkinson, Greg & Maree Boyle (and family Thomas, Phillip, Emma & Robert) & Darren & Janine Visser (and family Luke & Hannah). Next morning it was nice to see Peter Furlong (OKAless) travelling in a smaller 4wd. Mid morning we headed down to Woods Point stopping at Gaffneys Creek along the way for lunch where John & Dianne Smithard caught up with us. Next stop was Woods Point, a small historic township/gold mining area. We all had a walk around the township looking at the interesting buildings. The Woods Point camp site (situated just north of the township) seemed a nice spot to stay with a little shade right on a creek. So that’s were we all headed and set up camp. Saturday afternoon 3 more OKAs 4 appeared including Paul Nott, Andrew Crowther & Lyndal Ritchie & Ian & Jackie Jones. Andrew & Lyndal had a differential problem while camped at Lake William Hovell prior to the rally. Paul, Ian & Jackie travelled up to Lake William Hovell to help them out and get them on the road again so they could all make the rally. I was happy to see Andrew & Lyndal as I was looking forward to seeing the newly finished motorhome OKA with slideout bathroom and balcony out the back. Very awesome!! The kids spent the weekend in the creek, it certainly kept them busy. Next morning Peter Davis & Serena Fraser along with son Cameron arrived in the black OKA for a day trip. A few lucky members (who didn’t have to head back to work) stayed Sunday night and talked around the camp fire to about 1am. I took some great photos of Woods Point & the OKAs which have been placed on the website. Another great weekend, very relaxing with plenty of socialising. I have no doubt everybody enjoyed themselves, looking forward to the next trip in March to Lake William Hovell. One of the highlights from the weekend was a group of children coming up to me and asking “what to you call your Tonka trucks?” Our last OKA-trip around Australia We left Melbourne in March 2005 after meeting up with several Oka owners around the place: Paul, Ian, Peter, Darren who all were essential in getting our Oka in tip-top shape. Except for a good service (Ian) and a place to store the Michelin tyres after switching to Hankook tyres (Darren), it is always great just to talk Oka with people who love their Okas. And while I’m doing that Elly finds a friendly welcome with Ian’s wife Jacky, Darren’s wife Janine and Peter’s wife Sharon. They talk Oka too, but more the practical living stuff and family matters, although Janine is a good Oka driver and technically savvy. We travelled along the south and west coast, all the time trying to catch some fish, but mostly just feeding them. If you’d like to hear some fishy stories, talk to me. We tried to make it to the Horsham motorhome rally, but left it a bit late and decided to stay in the caravan park. We still met up with some people we met in Tassie and at an Adelaide CMCA Chapter Christmas weekend. Horsham became very well known to us as I managed to break my right arm/pulse while cleaning the Oka. With the arm in plaster I was supposed to stay in Horsham for 6 weeks, but managed to get away after 4. I did some training sessions of climbing in and driving through the park and the town and felt pretty confident, not expecting that we would break down on the very first day with a broken clutch cable (we did tell you about JJ, the mechanic extraordinaire, who got us back on the road pretty quickly). We visited some great wineries along the Murray River and made it via Port Augusta to Cowell where we met up with a lovely couple whose son we met in Roxby Downs a year earlier. Through her connections with the local hospital I got a doctor to take the plaster off, and although I was disappointed in how the arm felt, I was very happy to be able to start exercising to get the arm back to normal, which I haven’t achieved yet. We hit the Nullarbor after getting some good advice about where to get diesel and where not. Early in the season we were lucky to see four whales (two with calves, one really close by) at the Great Australian Bite. Awesome! The first rain storms hit us on the last stretch of the Nullarbor and we were amazed by all the wildlife coming to drink on the sides of the road, hundreds and hundreds of kangaroos. Next morning it was quite sickening to find many of them dead, at least one every km and often a whole group together. In Kalgoorlie we met up with Robin Wade who had a good look at and drove in our Oka. He agreed that the Oka was in very good nick and that he would be happy to sell it for us. Our last trip is over and it is now definitely ready to be sold, so give us or Robin a call if you’re interested. We also met Robert and Cherry Williamson while at Robin’s place and talked some more Oka. We met Robert again somewhere along the coast at a roadhouse on a very wet day. Via New Norcia –an interesting place we’d like to recommend to everybody- to the coast again: ah finally back to fishing! Up till Carnarvon we had a lot of rain with some nice days in between, so we travelled 5 pretty quickly. Although a pretty commercial set-up, we did like to stand in the water close to the dolphins at Monkey Mia. It was also very interesting to learn about the stromatolites in Hamelin Pool and marvel at meters and meters of tiny shells, used for building blocks in the past. The rain made us pass by Exmouth and in Carnarvon we met Oka owners Roger and Sonia Thurecht of the beautiful Wintersun Caravan Park. We met another couple with their son in an Oka and hate to admit that we forgot their names, but they were on their way to Kununurra, where we saw them again in the Kone Lakeside caravan park with the rest of their roost that flew up from down south somewhere. We went to Broome, a real tourist town bursting at the seams. It was a great contrast to visit Collyn and Maarit Rivers afterwards in their amazing house on a beautiful and peaceful property right at the beach. What a place to live! And yes we caught some fish at Broome! But not at Derby, which we think is a bit of a mudhole. We did like the enormous jetty on which we could park the Oka and Derby will have a special place in our memory as we met up unexpectedly with good friends we made in Tasmania on another trip. From Derby to Kununurra on the Gibb River road, 660kms of dirt road, a lot of it badly corrugated, add on an unintentional 118km detour to Drysdale River Homestead and a treasured visit to Bell Gorge and the result was a crack in the solenoid of the starter motor. I discovered that when I wanted to start the Oka after a lunch break at the Pentecoast river. I got her going again after tapping the crack closed with a hammer. New solenoid in Kununurra, next one in Mackay, next one in Maitland!! After that we made sure it can’t happen again by taking the protection ring of the front driveshaft right off. This is getting too long, I have to fly over the rest of the trip. From Kununurra to Katherine (Nitmiluk N.P. wonderful), Mataranka (thermal pool fantastic, great to see the place of “We of the Never Never”), Three Ways (diesel $1.52), Mt Isa, Charters Towers, Giru (water with fishies! And a great place to camp). Then it was MacKay where we stayed at Gordon and Lauren Rollinson. They were kind enough to let me stay there and work on the Oka with Gordon putting a water level sensor in the radiator while Elly flew to Newcastle for the 1st birthday of our grandson. Lauren and Elly did manage to get a game of scrabble in but would have liked a lot more. After that it was a familiar road and familiar places to Grafton, the Waterfall road to Armidale and then to Tamworth to spend a few days with Peter and Chris Morgan. Always there will be something to fix on the Oka. When Oka owners meet, they will go over each other’s Oka and they will find things to do, especially if one of them is called Peter Morgan. The four of us always have a great time together. After that it was on the road again to Newcastle, Maitland and Gresford to visit our daughter and her family. There is no one comparable to our grandson so keep your stories about yours, you have no hope! It’s also the area we lived in for 20 years, so lots of people to see. Then it was time to slowly go south to Melbourne but not before visiting John and Maree Hendriks in the Blue Mountains. We’d met them before at Lloyd and Marj’s place and it was great to see them again. They made us feel so welcome. There was a big 4x4 show in Penrith and I found a very good place to showcase our Oka, hoping to find a buyer. Guess who hopped in to have a good look? Dick Smith! He was very impressed. He asked lots of questions and told me that he definitely wanted one for a trip around the world. I thought I had it sold, but no, this man has enough dough to buy a brand new one, which was what he told me he would do. John and Maree also turned up and we had lunch together. We hope that they and any other Oka friend will give us a call if they want to visit Melbourne before March next year (03 93324227) as we are housesitting our other daughter’s place and would like to be able to pay back a bit of the hospitality we have experienced from you during the last three years. Oka greetings to you all, Elly & Walter Hes. Hi Lloyd and Marj In our business we are still running an OKA and 2 Toyota Coasters with 4wd modification using the same running gear as the OKA. We also have one new Coaster (that will be delivered next week) where the transfer case we are using is an IZUZU case rather than the Rockwell, a lot more expensive but I hope we will have smoother running and less wear in both gears, bearings and seals. 6 On another note I have 6 x 19.5 rims and tyres for sale if anyone is interested. The parts agent for OKA in Kununurra W.A. is Argyle motors, usually parts are ordered from Perth Regards Paul Wainwright East Kimberley Tours New email Paul@ekt.com.au Speedo Sensors Hi Marj and Lloyd, Our troubles started when we smashed our Speedo sensor in the High Country. Losing the Speedo and using the GPS in the High Country wasn't too much of a problem. However, we did find that judging the OKA's speed on some dirt roads coming up to corners very difficult and over confidence in an OKA could easily become a killer. On return I purchased a Speedo sensor from an auto wholesaler and purchased a unit which in all accounts looked identical. After putting it on the vehicle, found the Speedo still would not work. Fearing that we had damaged our Speedo when we lost the sensor, we had the Speedo checked out only to find that it was in good working order. John Hendricks kindly sent us a spare Speedo sensor that he had over only to find that when we placed it onto the vehicle, the Speedo was still not working. Both of these units looked similar, both were set correctly and the LED light would operate when the lugs passed the sensor but still would not register on the Speedo. In discussing this with one of the new members to the group in SA, Darryl Hameister, also had a spare sensor that he kindly sent to us after installing it on his vehicle to make sure that it worked. After installing this sensor unit on our vehicle we finally had a Speedo that worked. Well It Worked. So the Bottom Line Is If you Do a Speedo Sensor In on an XT you need a particular Speedo sensor. LT OKA's Use a Speedo sensor from a Commodore. If anyone knows where to source a Speedo sensor from an XT Please let me know It has an 18mm Thread up the outside, and a small red cap on the sensor end and out of the other end a Grey cable with 3 Wires. David Hallandal OKA Owners Group Membership Form Please Post the completed form and payment to: Membership Secretary, OKA Owners Group C/- Rowena Paterson 7605 Goulburn Valley Highway Kialla Victoria 3631 Please make the payment of $25.00 payable to “The OKA Owners Group”. For Direct Banking use: BSB Number: 063547 Account Number:10131505 For enquires please contact Rowena Paterson on 03.5823.2732 Email:rowenap@g-mwater.com.au OKA Owners Group Website: http://oka.carsbyweb.com.au/tiki-index.php -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Applicant’s First Name: ............................................................................ Applicant’s Last Name: ....................................................................... Spouse/Partner’s First Name: ..................................................................... Spouse/Partner’s Last Name: ..................................................................... 7 Postal Address:........................................................................................ State:..............Postcode:......... Residential Address: ................................................................................. State:............. Postcode: ......... Telephone: ............................................................... Fax: ........................................................................ Mobile Telephone: ...................................................... Email Address:........................................................................................ WebSite Address: .................................................................................... On the OKA Owners Group Website each member has their own webpage would you like this to be viewable by the general public or members only? Yes/No About your OKA Build Number( last 3 digits of the Vin number, found on the chassis above the front passenger tyre): ........................................................................................ Configuration: Single Cab, Dual-Cab, Multi-Cab, Bus: ........................................ The Vehicle is used for: ............................................................................. Is your Vehicle converted to a Motorhome? ........ Details: ......................................................................................... .. ........................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................... Modifications to your vehicle (please list): ................................................... . ............................................................................................................ .............................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................. .................................... Please list anyone, you have found to be most helpful in servicing or supplying parts (alternate sources) for your vehicle: ............................................................................. .............................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................. ........................................................................ Do you have skills, knowledge, or experience that other members may benefit from: 8 Eg trade, professional, computer, special knowledge, Knowledge about OKA vehicles, etc ....................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................... What would you like the group to provide: (See below under “Your Interests” for ideas) .... ............................................................................................... ........................................................................................................... Your Interests: eg, Outback Touring, week-end trips, one day trips, social get-togethers, technical days/ training, four wheel driving, bird watching, aviation, motor vehicles, etc .............................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................. ........................................................................ N.B
Each member is listed on the OKA Owners Website http://oka.carsbyweb.com.au/tiki-index.php) and each member is encouraged to place on there, photos of yourself and your vehicle along with a description of your vehicle and its accessories/modifications and any other information that might be of interest to other members. If you need help just contact our webmaster, listed on the site. 9 Hi Everyone, OKA OWNERS GROUP (PUTTING PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT FIRST) NEWSLETTER May 2006 It is just about travelling time for OkaOwners who live in the cold country. Our planned trip to WA is looking a little shaky at the moment, as we are once again in deep drought, and if it doesn’t rain very shortly we will be spending the winter hand-feeding our remaining stock. The plan is to travel up the Connie Sue Hwy as far as the Parallel Track, across to the Great Central Road, then north up the David Carnegie Road to the Gunbarrell and the Gary Hwy to Windy Corner. From there we head west along the Talawanta Track (crossing the Canning Stock Route near Well 22) to the Ruddall River National Park. From there we will visit again the Karajini National Park before heading south to Perth and then back home again. It is a pity that there aren’t more tracks from West to East (& reverse), but the Nullarbor is the quickest way to go. Anyone who would like to join us for all the trip or just for part, we would love to meet up with you. I am sure you will find plenty of interest on the website. It can now be accessed at http:// www.okaownersgroup.info The website now loads almost instantaneously on my internet connection, so you people who found it timed out before it loaded, try again. Thanks go to our Webmaster, John Hendriks for his great work. While we have new members joining up at regular intervals, one of note is the Schoensleben’s, who have come from Europe to purchase the new Oka NT, The first new model OKA .....vin# 001! You will find more information about it and their website below. If you see them in their travels around Australia, make them welcome. Don’t forget to let us all know your problems and the way you have fixed them. I am sure you will find Michael Hession’s article about axles very interesting. This seems to be one area where our Oka’s can let you down. It seems a broken axle can happen when you are trying to reverse over a large obstacle, or just when you are turning out of your own cement driveway! This is the kind of information that the Oka Owner’s Group is looking for. We are also interested to hear about any trips you have undertaken, good places to stay and any get- togethers you may have attended. Hope you all have a good winter season. Marj Parsons (Editor) APPLICATION FORM REMINDER: A big thank you to the members who sent in their application forms, photos and $25 application fee. I have received some great photos, which have all been placed onto our website. If you haven’t submitted your application form & $25 membership fee as yet, could you please forward to me as soon as possible. This is important as it allows us to update our records and to pay for costs associated with producing the newsletter and operation of the website. 1 It would be greatly appreciated if members could please attach a photo of their OKA when submitting their application forms. Thanks Rowena Paterson Membership Secretary VICTORIAN OKA RALLY - MAJORS CREEK, NAGAMBIE - 29th - 30th April 2006 Written by Rowena Paterson Majors Creek camping ground, near Nagambie in Central Victoria was a great venue, located on a large waterway (backwater of the Goulburn River). We had 4 OKAs attend the weekend: Jurgen & Claudia Mauracher with sons James & Robbie, Peter Davis & Serena Fraser with son Cameron, Greg & Maree Boyle with children: Thomas, Phillip, Emma & Robert and myself. We had a quiet weekend, a bit wet underfoot after the downpour on Friday night. Saturday and Sunday turned out to be quite nice days, only a little overcast. The kids did a bit of fishing but didn't have any luck. We had plenty of firewood for a nice campfire. Majors creek would be a great spot to bring a canoe as it's a still waterway that goes for kilometres, eventually joining up with the Goulburn River. We will keep Majors Creek in mind as a future rally venue (as everybody thought it was a great spot). It's also only around the corner from Mitchelton Winery for anybody who enjoys wine! * ******** OKA RALLY IN SYDNEY Participants: Syd Baker and his son Adam from Newcastle, has a Single Cab. Bob and Sue Etherington and Family, from East Kurrajong, were our hosts. They have a Bus/Station Wagon Jim and Julie Curtin with son Dominic from Sandy Point, with their dual cab/camper. Jim has made some Yüklə 2,02 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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