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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

Thanks Lang, good advice. I would never do roll-on, roll-off on the high seas, being paranoid about rust, but I had never considered the damage in port issue. An Oka can just squeeze in under 8 feet, maybe with letting some air out of the tyres. I hadn't realised the high cubes were so rare - I will have to re-think the camper. At least the length is okay.

RO_RO does not have any more rust than containers. All the cars are in weatherproof decks. Your OKA will be parked beside 2,000 brand new Toyotas and even a couple of brand new Ferraris. About 75% of all the cars on the road in Australia have arrived RO-RO.

The only problem, if you think it is a problem, is if they are trans-shipped and have to wait in the yard for a week or so (totally secure under bond and often actually under cover). I am sure your 20 year old OKA has spent more than a week outside in its life. Trans-shipping to and from Europe main Western ports by the "fast" ships does not happen. Into Mediterranean ports you may be trans-shipped at Malta. If you take the "slow" and cheaper ships they may be transferred to another vessel in an Asian port. Most West Coast RO-RO from USA to Australia gets trans-shipped in Mexico onto west-bound vessels coming through the Panama Canal. Coming and going to weird places (that actually have RO-RO) will entail being taken to where the cars are made such as Japan, China or Thailand. You will then be loaded with the above 2,000 Toyotas to go to your destination.

You don't know any of this stuff. You just load in Brisbane or wherever and 3-8 weeks later you fly in to get your car from the appointed pickup point, oblivious to Oswald OKA's world travels. If you ship from NZ to Australia he will go via Japan and probably change ships because the Pacific Milk Run for the car carriers goes anti-clockwise.

PS Don't think about letting the air out of the tyres to any great extent as your heavily loaded truck will be going up and down every minute for possibly 6 weeks and the sidewalls will be buggered when you collect the vehicle. If you have to do this to get the truck in you MUST put it on axle stands - just make up a set from hardwood or scrap steel. Lots of crawling around under the truck in the container with jacks and stands but well worth it. Stands are smart in any case as we had a tight-fit truck which had a tyre go down enroute and it leaned against the side of the container rubbing through a brand new canopy.

Lang wrote: Your OKA will be parked beside 2,000 brand new Toyotas and even a couple of brand new Ferraris.

So THAT'S why Toyotas rust so much...... but seriously, thanks for the great info. RO-RO is obviously not what I thought, but I still don't like the idea of all that shuffling between different vessels. I will aim to make it fit into an 8-footer. Or maybe do like another forum member, and have a motorhome in every port.

Cheers, Paul

Picked up #200 today. Far more impressed than I expected on the 100km run from Nambour to Brisbane. That little Perkins just keeps pulling and 100kmh was easy with the go pedal well off the floor.

Lang

Maybe the speedo over reads Lang
In truth, we are around 6T and the Perkins does everything we need.

Peter and Margaret

Only check on speedo correctness was the cook following me in the F150. "Why did you keep falling way behind?" "If you want to get booked for speeding you can do it without both of us being caught."

Lang

I can't remember if it was #200 exactly but I did spy an intercooler pipe in one of the gumtree OKAs pictures


EDIT: Nope it was #330