Who are these Guys, and what do they have in common?
Steve Hutson & Tony Dovy
Many in our community know that Steve Hutson is stocking Listeroids and spares on the mainland of Austrailia. Steve has invested time and effort puting up a website called Ozlisteroids. Tony Dovy is a South African who has a lot of experience with import and runs a business there as well. We’ll see if they find this page and are interested in sharing their respective contact info 🙂
Tony is well traveled and has made a number of trips across India and China in search of slow speed gems and other relics and marvels of the past.
I can’t imagine Tony finding a better host in all of Aus than Steve .
Now.. the question, will Steve find this post and tell us more of this beautiful spot in Oz where the picture was taken?
George, I rarely miss checking the Utterpower website each day – Tony Dovey (red shirt) assumed that most of Australia was semi arid – so when he came ot Australia last week I had to convince him otherwise.
The photo posted by George was taken on the skywalk above the rain forest canopy near Dorrigo NSW – about 100 kilometres west of Coffs Harbour. Here is a link to the
area – http://www.bellingermagic.com/accom_result1/dorrigo-rainforest-centre/
As George suggested Tony Dovey is not only a great ambassador for his own country, South Africa – he is probably the most knowledgeable person I have met when it comes to encouraging Chinese and Indian manufacturers to lift their QC whether it is a genset or a slow revving listeroid engine. It was my pleasure to have Tony as a visitor and show him a variety of landscapes – with an emphasis on rainforests, waterfalls, beaches and rivers in the northern region of New South Wales. Every time we saw a waterfall or set of rapids near the escarpment Tony would salivate and calculate the potential for micro or full on mini hydro – there were so many places he liked I am not sure what his favourite spot was.
I will ask Tony to make sure he reads the Utterpower post and he can tell you more himself. Unfortunately for Tony my Hilux 4 x 4 was out of action so we took a formidale 7 tonne Hino diesel truck as our vehicle of choice for the tour – it meant we tended to get more repsect on some of the narrower cliff hanging roads in isolated but beautiful places – strange Tony would suggest I didnt know how close to the cliff edges overlooking the rivers and white water I was because he always seemed to on the edge – smile 🙂 we also saw hundreds of kilometres of highly productive cereal farms on the Darling Downs in SE Queensland –
Tony was impressed with a special treat dinner at Weis restaurant in Toowoomba
http://www.weis-restaurant.com/photo_gallery It would be inappropriate of me to recveal how many times we returned for extra helping – there is a time limit of 2.5 hours.
If you would like copies of a range of the photos of most of the places email me via my website http://www.ozlisteroids.com and send a website enquiry and ask for photos from TDs visit.
On a more serious note we discussed the need for a more collaborative approach as Utterpower associates to try to improve QC efforts of Indian manufacturers with their listeroids and other engines types and Chinese in respect of ST alternators and chase the “holy grail” by securing reasonably priced, quality alterantors for the DIY market. Tonys market in South Africa is vastly different in that he supplies mainly turn key genset solutions. Ozlisteroids walks a parallel path but tends to be more interested in those slow revving “listeroid” engines and facilitating peripherals like Utterpower inspired serpentine pulleys – underpinned by an extravagant cache of lsiteroid spare parts to keep the dream alive as we say down under. Tonys eyes fell out of his head when he saw the range and quantity of JKSon spare parts – and we agreed it was making a statement that my love of the listeroid goes beyond commercial common sense – the strategy is intentional and is based on supporting my customers and others well into the future.
If you love old CS Listers and listeroids you will understand that I am a listeroid addict and passionate about making sure that parts are easier to obtain than they are for many other non repairable throw away engines that are in the marketplace today.
Many of you already – know I owe George Breckenridge and others who make Utterpower what it is today a debt of gratitude for sharing information and encouraging me to critique what direction I go with these engines. I guess I prefer to underpin and facilitate the DIY movement rather than offer turnkey solutions – many of my customers have become quite close friends and they are scattered across this country and into New Zealand. I never cease to be surprised by highly innovative yet KISS practical workable solutions you come up with as part of the DIY community to overcome issues with listeroid engines and alternator heads – people like but not limited to Ben Styles, Luke Roberts, Rob Cullen, Ian Connor, Gene McIntyre, Matt Richards, Gil Claus – in New Zealand, Geoff Cowie – in Darwin, Lee – in Malaysia – and the many others who share both their problems, solutions and failures – pictures and achievements and in doing so provide myself and others in the Ozlisteroids family with rich feedbback. There are many talented people out there George – and many more who can grow and develop if they collaborate and learn from your many readers and contributors. Just be aware some contributors on forums speaking doom and gloom don’t even own a listeroid engine – which I find amusing 🙂 makes me think of the two little old men in the balcony in the muppets – bitching and moaning about everything instead of fixing it.
If you think I can help you in any way with your listeroid project I’d be happy to hear from you – be aware if I don’t think you are up to the task of caring for your listeroid I may appear to talk you out of owning one – listeroids are not for everyone – if you have some basic mechanical and fabrication skills and an open mind and an ability listen to the important information based on experience of others and ongoing research and you think you can make a difference – then a listeroid is for you.
Ozlisteroids JKSon listeroids engines arrive crated – untested ready for you to make a difference – most rise to the challenge and savour the success and are often surprised how basically sound these engines really are.
Stephen Hutson
Ozlisteroids
AUSTRALIA
http://www.ozlisteroids.com
PS Tony Dovey can be contacted in South Africa via his website http://www.dorsha.co.za/ – I suspect Indian and Chinese manufacturers dread Tony looking over their shoulder at the factories during the acceptance inspections 🙂 is that right Tony?
Steve,
You live in a beautiful area, lush green areas for sure! I’m sure Tony had a lot of fun. Tony and I have traded notes for a number of years now, and we know a number of the same people in China and India. When JB Shah visited here, he was blown away that we Americans have so many firearms. I told him I got my first one at twelve years old and haven’t shot anyone by mistake yet:-) I hope he returns so we can have enough time to go to the range and shoot high power rifles, I know he’ll have fun.
When it comes to good food.. I think we might go see SW Lee in Maylaysia, he has sent me a numer of cell phone pictures from there when eating meals, with the mix of cultures there and with all the wonderful fresh fruit and vegatables we may not be able to stop eating.