Pretty rare beastie...
About once a fortnight I drive past what must be Adelaide’s biggest RV/Caravan dealer. It is situated on the main road heading north out of Adelaide, so gets an enormous amount of traffic past it. They often have unusual stuff (for us) out the front. They do a roaring trade in full size American pick ups that have been converted to RHD. I’ve seen them selling a US military Humvee, and an Aerial Atom! However as I drove past today, It was something that made me stop and take a few snaps on the way back.
I’ve actually seen an OKA getting around Adelaide a few times, but never in a situation to track it down. I don’t think this is that truck, but I can’t be certain.
What is an OKA?
In short, an Australian designed and built off-road truck or bus. Intended for proper off-road use in the outback.
The name is also a play on the Australian slang term Ocker.
The term “ocker” is used both as a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in a rough and uncultivated manner, using a broad Australian accent (or Strine).[1] The typical ocker is “usually found in a blue singlet and rubber thongs with a tinnie in his hand propping up a bar”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocker
Which is one of the very many words in the Australian vernacular that can be interpreted as either purely positive, purely negative or somewhere in-between, all dependent on the context.
“Oi c*nt, what’s going on?” Is more likely to be an affectionate greeting as some sort of insult. Straya (and despite what is in that clip and what ASPW says, VB is not a good beer and no one really would be seen drinking it these days...).
Anyway, back to the truck. Here are some poor photos (it was very bright, so I couldn’t actually see the phone screen, and about 42 degrees C so I wasn’t in the mood to hang around, also it was locked so I didn’t get to see inside. Excuses? Yeah, I got them.).
To be honest this one looked a bit rough and ready. I’m also not convinced that the whole truck/Mog/OKA whatever is really a good solution for proper off-road overland travel. Dirt road sure, but the bigger the truck the bigger the stuck right? Imagine trying to get this out bogged to the sills... I feel maybe in colder weather climates it makes more sense, but in a country where you can spend a good part of the year very comfortably outside. Why hide in a metal box?
Anyway, I still think it’s a pretty cool thing. I like this sort of automotive oddity, and appreciate that is gives (one, out of many) solutions to many of the issues that overland travel brings up. I see the appeal, it’s just not for me.
Plus.
Although it seems there might be some fishing going on there.
The only other one for sale in the country is nearly half the price and looks WAY nicer.
I know Ronny Dahl has a call out for an OKA to be on ‘modified’, sure everyone has seen it, but this was a great video.
Some other O&E porn for US readers while I was there.
Plus something a little more familiar.
Cheers.