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Hi Lang,
Welcome to the group,you will find lots of usefull info regarding all things OKA,if there is anything that you can't find just put the questions and someone will be able to help with answers,we all love our OKAS ,you have chosen the right vehicle for travelling.
Cheers,Joe

Thanks Joe

I know nothing about OKA's but my initial trial drive indicates an amazingly smooth ride,pretty ordinary power and great turning circle. Having a 4x4 Canter previously. although it was a lot more sophisticated and more nimble feeling, the OKA seems to be an advance in vehicle for our purposes.

Joe

Welcome Lang

Let the journey begin.......

I may have a bus body to suit and sent you a PM

Hi Lang welcome to the site. I have a camper body for sale If you can send me your email address I will send you a PDF file & photos. My email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Regards
Stephen

Lang,
Loved you website, you have enjoyed some interesting journeys in interesting vehicles. Look forward to your Oka installment.
Personally now 1/2 way (or am I kidding myself) through fixing my bus body, I would suggest you give serious thought to making a lightweight body for the Oka to suit yourself.
Driving my Oka without the body skins on and an empty interior, It drives like a different beast, plenty of get up and go. The original bodies are built strong (and heavy).

and welcome to the comradeship of Oka ownership.

cheers
Frank

Frank wrote: ..... I would suggest you give serious thought to making a lightweight body for the Oka to suit yourself.

Agree.
#196 was a bus and I took the body off and built a new one for the camper. Too many compromises in the bus body.
Best decision we ever made, followed by using sandwich panel for the new body.

Welcome Lang you are in for the time of your life. Enjoy
Greg

Thank you all.

As I said above I know nothing about the OKA. The advice on weight is common sense and certainly carries a big message for me in my rebuild plans. Jack the seller explained a lot about the effect increasing weight has on the OKA's performance and handling. I have both witnessed and personally killed vehicles for no other reason than overweight in difficult conditions.

The current multi cab/trayback unit would be good for certain uses - probably for people like prospectors or grey nomads who set up for some days at a time - as the "Trayon" style camper box could be quickly tidied up to be very comfortable with a queen size bed and all mod cons. It gives you a nice "lounge room" in the cab and cooking/dining/sleeping in the camper. With wind-down legs you can leave your camp set up while still having use of the vehicle.

For our long distance travelling we need something we can jump in and out of needing little more than the awning rolled out, if that, after a 14 hour day in some third world country. Fixed high roof is not an option so pop-top will be fitted as we need to fit in a shipping container.

Please keep the advice coming.

Lang

Welcome Lang, lotsa fun ahead for you. I add my agreement to the others - my Oka is built for comfort - full bathroom, island bed, front opening skylight, rear fold up veranda with roof and floor, good size fridge and freezer, all the usual etc's but it weighs in at 4.5 tons with fuel and water but no luggage. Sandwhich panels are great - light, strong, easy to work with and have good insulation. Enjoy!

Paul

If you have not patented it, any chance of a floor plan sketch?

Lang

Lang wrote: For our long distance travelling we need something we can jump in and out of needing little more than the awning rolled out, if that, after a 14 hour day in some third world country. Fixed high roof is not an option so pop-top will be fitted as we need to fit in a shipping container.

Here is a blog of a friend of ours.
This is a full height, hard sided "pop down" camper made from sandwich panel.
It travels at full height but can be reduced in height in about 2 hours for shipping.
epicycles.com/Truck%20Blog/2010-01-01/2010-01-01.htm
epicycles.com/
They have recently returned from a 3 year drive to Scotland and back. We spent some time with them in Turkey.

Peter

Comfortable unit. Not really an option for me as we will be on roads with overhanging trees. The sandwich panel idea has been mentioned and is a great way to get light strength and insulation.

Thanks for the info.

Lang

A bit more sophisticated it could be a hard sided pop up.
We are currently camped in north eastern Norway. It is about 5C (not really cold) and blowing 35kph.
I would not like the idea of being here with a canvas pop top.

www.schoensleben.ch/sur/content/index_e.shtml
Susi & Ruedi (OKA NT001) manage to ship their full height camper wherever they want to go.
They use Grimaldi RORO ferries and travel on the ship with the OKA.

Susi and Rudi have a great web site. I have used Grimaldi before in the Mediterranean. They are very limited in what they can do outside the Med regarding vehicles being taken as "personal effects" of on-board passengers. only one country in South America allows this. Anywhere else it goes as cargo with all the hassles and unless you want to spend 3 weeks on a limited facilities ship it would be cheaper and quicker to fly to meet the arrival.

Shipping is always more difficult and more expensive than you plan on. RO-RO is nearly always easier and cheaper but have limited destinations - the security risks are overblown in our experience (9 vehicles to and from Europe, Middle East, Russia and USA) - never had more than a few tools touched. Every trip is different - you will ship from Perth to Durban today with no problems, someone will go on the same ship on the same route on the next voyage and finish up tearing their hair out and emptying their wallet.

After having lived in our Palomino poptop slideon through a Colorado 100kph+ blizzard, spent many nights below freezing, waking up to fresh heavy snowfalls overnight with weeks spent in max daytime temps in single digits I would still be thinking along the lines of hard sided poptop.
With a 20,000 btu gas furnace we could heat it quite well (our most gas usage was a week out of a 9kg bottle) and when the blizzard hit we hunkered down in the back with the top down and sat it out warm and comfortable inside. When the storm abated awe had to forcibly push the door open as the snow was 300mm up the door the bottom of which was 1200mm off the ground! Snow was piled up to bonnet height around the F250 and we had to dig it away from the doors to get into the cab, she started right up after 6 hours in -15 temps and 100kph+ winds and we clambered back onto the road using low range.
The slideon never stopped us pushing through overgrown tracks to find campsites and the only time we pulled the plug was on some of the Moab "nick in the side of the cliff" tracks where even the F250 on its own couldn't have gone.
The ventilation and light afforded by the poptop and its large windows is needed far more in warm weather unless you have a/c.

Peter and Sandra

Great description - I feel cold just reading it!

We are warm weather people and follow the sun (drove from Vladivostok to Europe in a 1967 FIAT 500 Bambino wearing no more than Melbourne winter day clothing on the colder days). I did do Mongolia and Siberia from Beijing to Moscow in a bare Russian GAZ Combi-style van at -25c, not so comfortable. Did the same route 6 months later in a 100 year old ITALA car mostly in shirt sleeves. John Denver was right about "Sunshine on my shoulder".

Fitting in to a container for shipping where no RO-RO exists is also essential so pop-top it must be.

Lang wrote: Paul

If you have not patented it, any chance of a floor plan sketch?

Lang

Glad to Lang, but it might take a couple of days to find on my computer. I doubt it would suit conversion to a pop-top though - I described it mostly to highlight the benefits of sandwich panel construction. I am in the process of designing a pop-top version for a second Oka we bought for precisely your reason - we want to be able to ship via containers. I am aiming for a hard-side pop top - canvas has too many negatives.

Reading your posts, you have had some wonderful adventures - what a great way to live your life!

Not much in the way of dimensions, but it will give you an idea.

Thanks Paul.

Just a hint: High Cube (9 foot high) 20 foot containers are very rare and most shipping agents will not find you one. You more than likely will require a 40 foot high cube which are not double the 20 foot price but quite a bit more expensive. If you stay under 8 feet high and 20 feet long, even having to take the wheels off and drive in on old bare rims, it will give you unlimited options. Open top or flats means you are top loaded out in the salt spray no matter how well you tarp it up, they are more expensive and your vehicle will be moved around at every intermediate port with a high risk of damage. Watch your width as well.

Lang