#297 - 20 years in a shed - time to wakey wakey :)

May as well create a thread so to possible organise my thoughts.

What I do know.
I just paid $42K for #297. She's been dry stored for 20 years in the NSW Blue Mountains with engine runs every few months but not more.
With 91,00klms on the clock and seemingly original everything LT.
Single cab with a half built DIY motorhome on the back.
Never registered. No visible rust.
Before the big-sleep the po put new shocks, new bronze bushes, reset springs, recon both diffs, new axle bearings and a bunch of stuff he's forgotten.
Has a very quaint radio with cassette player



As of today She's been tilt trayed to a local 4WD and Bus mechanics for a thorough once-over and rego inspection.
He's actually seen an OKA before which impressed me greatly!
I've asked him to look into everything and give me a report on what needs doing.
That will inform the next steps...

Ultimately I want to cut off the DIY motorhome and make it a UTE/slide on camper with Cummins/205 combo.
Many thanks to Peter and Carla who kindly drove over to mine with loan wheels to get Her rego.

Mine came with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to run” in the CD player.
“Thunder road” was what it started playing.

At the moment it has Redbone’s “Come and get Your Love” stuck in it… and it plays it randomly.
I need to pull that radio.

Born to run!
With a Perky?
Or maybe you had something bigger under there?
Maybe mine should have "the wheels of the bus go round and round".....
Bring on the 6BT..

Don't dismiss the little Perky too quickly. They are a smooth, refined engine that suits the Oka every well, from a drivers point of view. With a beefed up turbo they perform very well, unless you plan on towing something big and heavy. They last and last and last....dripping oil all the way!

Entirely agree Paul I will run the truck for a while with the Perky just to see the truth...after all it was intended to potter around mine sites...

Morts turbo has made a big difference to many trucks 210 went from 55hp to 94.6 366 come up to 104 paid to have installed for about 2k

will keep that in mind, however the plan is to bung an Allison in and change out the Rockwell case. So a Cummins at the same time makes some sense - if not to my wallet....

297 is close to getting registered for the first time ever...Is getting a NSW CTP Green Slip easy? Can't imagine the OKA is a standard choice on any insurers' web site...Any tips?
Dave

My tip would be to get it registered in Victoria if you possibly can. It is an all-in-one fee with NO annual roadworthy/pink slip.

Nothing worse than trying to get a pink slip while you are travelling through the Kimberley etc.

FWIW when we almost bought an OKA last year we arranged insurance to go & pick it up with our current insurer Club 4x4 & were amazed at how good the price was. Agreed value was getting on toward double the agreed value of our current Patrol & Tvan set up, but the premium was less than half. We were told that Patrol premiums are high due to them being a vehicle lots of young hoons buy & sink a lot of money into only to be attracted by every stretch of water or mud they can find (my words, not Club 4x4's), ie. a high risk vehicle, whereas the OKA didn't even come up on their list, so they found the nearest equivalent which was considered a 'low risk vehicle'.

Well, the brown slip aka blue slip for an unregistered vehicle is now done.

A relatively painless 'major service' costing $2700 which I consider to be ok for a 20+ year old barn find type.
Electrics were a considerable expense as no tail lights or indicators were present and the sealed beam headlights were bust.
The *good* news is no mechanical faults were found....at all.....
All fluids and filters changed and the usual safety checks.

So, armed with my QBE CTP ($500 ish) I'm off tomorrow to the RMS see if I can it rego'd.
What could possibly go wrong......

.......What could possibly go wrong......

Did you want the answers in alphabetical or numerical order?

At the RTA it was all looking so good.
I had ALL the docs lined up and the guy was just about to hand over the plates when....doh!...he called over the supervisor.
My heart sank.
Yes, the mechanics inspection form was missing a number in a space....the wheelbase was missing!

Hurry back to said mechanic, fill in "2990" in 2 places, hurry back to RTA.
Thanks God they're only 3klm away....
Back to same guy....grab plates and run out before they find some other b/s thing to keep their jobs over.

So there She is - resplendent in first ever rego plates in Her 27 years of existence.

Next....get my Heavy Rigid license later this week....

Congratulations! That is one of life's big hurdles overcome, all good news from here.

Cheers,

Paul

Thanks Paul, hope you're right!
BTW who does your insurance I need some rapidly - not CTP got that.

Ours is a motorhome and is insured with CIL who only do motorhomes. A previous Oka was insured with Shannons after a lot of shopping around. not everyone knows what an Oka is.

I will be interested in hearing your opinion of the Oka once you get around a bit. We had our 'big shop' yesterday, about 250 k's, in the Oka - brilliant, I have never enjoyed driving any vehicle so much, and we have always had good vehicles, not just grey porridge.

Ken Tame. Motorhome. Agreed value.
Cheers,
Peter

FYI wheel base measurement is incorrect according to the manual specs. It should be 3045mm. A tape measure error I'd say. Pete.

very interesting OKAPETE, well picked up. Where did you get that image? I found the specs of the new NT wheelbase was as per your pic but assumed they'd grown it from the LT days.

33mm does matter, as you know...

This week's achievements:

- OKA is now registered
- I passed my Medium Rigid license test

This week's frustrations:

- No bugger will insure my OKA unless it's a motorhome

Useless fact:

Ken Tame (KT) Insurance and Club 4x4 are both in the same building and owned by Envest, a private capital business