Q&A with Dane Field - West Coast OKA Spares
- OKA Nation
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
When Dane Field stumbled across an OKA in a Coolgardie yard as a young sailor in the Royal Australian Navy, he couldn't have imagined where that moment would lead. Today, Dane owns four OKAs in various stages of restoration and has just taken over the supply of spare parts for legacy OKA XT and LT variants through West Coast OKA Spares. A self-described "OKA tragic" who's actively restoring his fleet to their former glory, Dane is the perfect person to help keep the legacy OKA community rolling. Here's his story.
Tell us about West Coast OKA Spares. What's the story behind it?
We're a small family-run business passionate about providing spare parts for OKA XT and LT variants. Recently, we were approached by Dean at OKA All Terrain and asked if we'd consider taking over the supply of spare parts to the legacy OKA trucks to allow him and his team to continue their great work on the Gen 5 trucks. It was a huge commitment, but after a good long think, we agreed to purchase all XT and LT spare parts held by OKA All Terrain.
When did you first fall in love with OKA?
Way back as a young 20-something-year-old serving in the Royal Australian Navy, I was travelling from Perth to Brisbane to see my family when I stumbled across an OKA parked up in a yard in Coolgardie. The truck looked amazing and as I trudged back to my car after a quick look through the fence—it was late in the evening and the place was all locked up—I thought to myself that I would one day love to own one of these super cool trucks! At the time, I didn't think I'd ever be in a position to afford one.
Fast forward to today—how many OKAs do you own now?
(Laughs) Well, several years later I was looking to upgrade my Landcruiser to something I could use to travel around with my young family, and I landed at an OKA. An old dream came true as I dragged 162 home to build into my dream rig. I instantly became an OKA tragic and dragged my family along for the ride—our one truck very quickly became three, and shhh, don't tell my wife, but I think we just acquired a fourth! Our trucks are all in various stages of build progress with two of them lined up awaiting their new Cummins power plants to be installed. You could say the OKA bug bit us pretty hard.
What's your goal with West Coast OKA Spares?
Our goal is to provide quality parts to the OKA legacy truck community. In the short term, we plan to grow our inventory, and in the longer term, begin some groundwork on some exciting upgrade packages for the older vehicles. As I'm sure you can imagine, this all takes considerable time and lots of dollars. However, we are well and truly OKA fanatics here at West Coast OKA Spares, with a passion for the old trucks, and we want to be a big part in keeping these legacy trucks not only going but looking great as well.
How will you work with existing parts suppliers?
We'll be working closely with our East Coast OKA parts suppliers, and we're certainly not here to try and take any business away from them. Rather, we'll be working together with them, as has been the case previously. This ensures a reliable supply of quality parts to keep our older trucks moving. We'd like to thank Dean Robinson for all the hard work that he put into the legacy vehicles and for the opportunity to become a parts supplier for those legacy vehicles. We'll no doubt still be calling on Dean to assist us going forward—I'm learning new things about our trucks each and every day!
What can the OKA community expect in the coming weeks?
The next couple of weeks are going to be very busy for us with the relocation and cataloguing of stock into our new parts storage facility, so we'll be limited in parts that can be supplied during this period. But our commitment to you, as the legacy OKA community, is to do our best to get the parts you need out to you in the shortest possible timeframe. Please don't hesitate to give us a call or drop us an email—we look forward to hearing about your OKA story.
Any final thoughts for the OKA family?
Our family is very committed to the OKA brand, and we've met many wonderful people in the OKA family. For those we haven't yet met, we sincerely look forward to the opportunity to meet with you. Have a great OKA day!
You can reach West Coat OKA Spares here