Oka 4WDs.

Oka, after Ocker:
Colloquial, stereotypical Australian, rough and ready, sometimes very rough and ready.

The Oka is bluff, gruff and from Western Australia. It is a four-wheel drive, "medium" (ie. heavy to you and me) Truck. The basic cab-chassis weighs in at three tons, the tour-bus at four and half tons, empty. It is a forward-control design with the cab over the engine. This configuration makes the most of the load-space. It also gives a great view of the traffic and of the track just in front of the wheels. Power comes from a Perkins turbo-diesel (4L, 4cyl). The power (81 Kw) is nothing special but the peak torque (354 ) must make serious stump-pulling possible.

Barry Burrowes of `Hell West and Crooked Safaris' reports that his 6 ton Oka tour-bus just walked over the biggest sand-dunes in the Simpson Desert in low first - no drama - but the vehicle can run out of puff into a head-wind at 100kph. It certainly brings new meaning to `shaped like a brick'.

The vehicle is principally aimed at commercial users - miners, farmers, tour-operators and the military. The Australian army are now testing a couple of Okas. To deal with the small market and wide variations in customers' needs, a modular body system lets the makers build tailored vehicles easily.

Other manufacturers have played in this market. Land-Rover had the series 2A/2B forward-control (FC), the military-only FC101 and now the Perentie 6x6. Pinzgauer (Steyr-Daimler-Puch) and Unimog are also contenders - exotic and expensive.

Manufacturer's figures 1996

Power 81 at 2800, torque 354 at 1600, 5spd gearbox, 2spd transfer-case, wheel-base 3045mm, 8.25x16 or 9.00x16 tyres.

Photos courtesy of Bill Slattery's Truck and Bus Sales (Vic') (03) 9357 9555 and of
Barry Burrowes' Hell West and Crooked Safari Tours (03) 9712 0272.

See the Oka (main), 1997, Perentie 4x4 and 6x6 and Steyr-Daimler-Puch pages