OBI Dweller Review and Discussion

[glennsmith15]

If he has 400 Ah of batteries don't you think he should add to the 300 of solor?

From what I have read lithium charges significantly faster. I certainly am no expert but I would assume that means the existing solar would be able to charge the 400ah in same if not faster time than 300ah AGM.

 

[gendlert]

There are a couple of things at play here. Let me know if anyone thinks I've screwed this up:

• You can increase the bank capacity (Ah) without increasing the charging capability (W), and everything still works. Increasing bank capacity allows for longer trips/shady days without running into battery trouble.
• If you have a charging setup at home in your garage/driveway/storage solution, then adding Ah may solve the problem if you aren't trying to boondock forever. For example, I'm not. My longest trips are typically 4 days with the exception of an annual long trip where I can supplement with the (insert evil music here) dreaded generator to supplement for an hour if needed. The increased capacity from Lithium gives me a HUGE margin compared to the AGM batteries before I run out of juice in the worst of conditions.
• As Glenn pointed out, the Lithium should charge faster and be more efficient with the solar panel capacity as-is.
• Later, upgrading panel capacity (tougher install than the batteries) will help with charging, but the priority would be (for me, at least) bank size.

Maybe I'm missing something, and I'm happy to be educated.

 

[BernieMulcahy]

I've got the stock 300W on the roof and also a separate 200 watt portable panel that I use when the Dweller is parked in the shade.

Now that I'm getting serious and started to look at battery sizes and the available space (under the couch in my Dweller), it looks like I'll probably be going the route that glennsmith15 mentioned. Simply replacing the 3 100Ah batteries with 3 100Ah lithium.

As I understand lithium this should just about double my available storage since the lithium can go to near zero where the AGM is limited to go to 50% of capacity. I want to do this for those times when I'm in the shade and don't won't to worry if I will have enough power for 3 or 4 days.

I was not planning on changing any of the electrical/charging equipment on the dweller. Just changing the settings on the charge controller (and on my portable panel controller as well).

Any comments about best cost effective replacement lithium batteries? I've read that the Weize (that glennsmith15 mentioned) are decent. Along with CHINS as well. I like the built-in bluetooth of the Renogy, but its twice the price.

 

[AMMO461]

First excursion with our D13. Alabama hills CA just below Mt Whitney.

 

[gendlert]

First excursion with our D13. Alabama hills CA just below Mt Whitney.

How many campers do you have in the D13? Can't help but notice seating for 4. Nice looking setup!

 

[AMMO461]

Thank you. Just the wife and I, no pets or kids. The Tacomas rear lower seats are removed for more packing room.

 

[Treefarmer]

Waiting for black Friday deals and then likely pulling the trigger. My understanding is setting changes are all you have to worry about.

2022 OBI Dweller
2020 RAM 1500 Rebel

You are right. We just pulled the trigger on a complete new system. Prices may get lower from here, but they are already much lower than a month ago. As an example, we got $15,000 worth of lithium batteries for $12,000. Just watch, they'll probably be $9,000 nest year!?

 

[SteveO90290]

Has anyone upgraded their batteries to lithium? That is my next planned upgrade. Aside from changing Renogy charging settings, is there anything else to be aware of or just a simple swap?

Are you in a cold weather climate? If so look into battery heaters or a lithium batteries with heater built in. Lithium batteries are not to be charged under certain temp (30*F?.). With the solar system connected directly to the batteries as described for the Dweller, you have to have some sort of thermal battery management for cold to avoid damage due to cold charging if you are in an area that gets below that threshold.

 

[SteveO90290]

There are a couple of things at play here. Let me know if anyone thinks I've screwed this up:

• You can increase the bank capacity (Ah) without increasing the charging capability (W), and everything still works. Increasing bank capacity allows for longer trips/shady days without running into battery trouble.
• If you have a charging setup at home in your garage/driveway/storage solution, then adding Ah may solve the problem if you aren't trying to boondock forever. For example, I'm not. My longest trips are typically 4 days with the exception of an annual long trip where I can supplement with the (insert evil music here) dreaded generator to supplement for an hour if needed. The increased capacity from Lithium gives me a HUGE margin compared to the AGM batteries before I run out of juice in the worst of conditions.
• As Glenn pointed out, the Lithium should charge faster and be more efficient with the solar panel capacity as-is.
• Later, upgrading panel capacity (tougher install than the batteries) will help with charging, but the priority would be (for me, at least) bank size.

Maybe I'm missing something, and I'm happy to be educated.

True, even just swapping 300AH of AGM for 300AH of LiPo gives you nearly 50% more due to the usable amount of capacity with LiPo is way greater than AGM or SLA.

 

[glennsmith15]

Are you in a cold weather climate? If so look into battery heaters or a lithium batteries with heater built in. Lithium batteries are not to be charged under certain temp (30*F?.). With the solar system connected directly to the batteries as described for the Dweller, you have to have some sort of thermal battery management for cold to avoid damage due to cold charging if you are in an area that gets below that threshold.

Yes I am and I did consider this. However, from what I have managed to read, lithium batt w/ built in BMS (batt mgmt system) will not allow charging below freezing, negating that risk. When I do camp in cold weather (not generally below 25 or so) I have heater on at night so this will allow batteries to maintain a higher temp that will allow charging.

 

[glennsmith15]

I installed the (3) 100ah Weize lithium batteries on 11/17 and just returned from a 10 day trip to southern CA and back to OR. Installation was very easy.. just changed solar charger and inverter settings. I read to charge each battery individually and then in parallel prior to installing so I did that too. I'm not sure if the inverter charger would have accomplished this just as well? Performance seemed (much) better. Don't really have any quantifiable numbers as I do not have a battery monitor but the voltage stayed from 13.3 to 12.8 at lowest using starlink on all day for 3 days at one point.
I think next I am going to add (2) 100w solar panels on roof. Has anyone done this? From what I've gathered it doesn't seem too difficult...

 

[glennsmith15]

Other mod I just did was add TCL 32" TV. Uses same mounting holes for bracket. Much better TV experience as the one that came with was pretty useless IMO.
Power consumption difference seemed very minimal. Just added some longer velcro straps to secure when stowing. Now w/ Starlink I am able to watch just about anything I want (not often in summer but makes winter camping more enjoyable).

 

[rblitz]

New forum member here; so glad I found this information resource and I look forward to contributing what I can for others.

My wife and I picked up our new '22 OBi Dweller 15 two weeks ago. We live in the Mid-Atlantic of the US, so this is off season for us, which is pretty anticlimactic after such a purchase. But in a way this is OK because, without a comprehensive manual, we can take the next few winter months learning as much as we can and making mods that will prepare us for adventures starting in the spring.

My first question/concern: the RV dealership had run antifreeze through the entire system. During our PDI I had requested that they demonstrate the proper operation of the plumbing and electrical systems. That meant that they had to "un-winterize" the unit.

Getting back home I wanted to re-winterize it but I found that there was no by-pass for the Truma Combi. When draining the tank I saw some remaining anti-freeze coming from the low point drain.

So I know that Truma recommends just draining and not loading it with Antifreeze, but there already was some in there. My winterizing when I got home involved blowing out all the lines with compressed air, draining the heater and all the tanks, reloading the unit with antifreeze and then draining just the Truma (out of concerns of the corrosive effects of the antifreeze.)

Any experienced RVers out there who can tell me if I've made my life more complicated/costly by taking this route?

Thanks in advance.

 

[rblitz]

Gray water management is something which could be improved on the Dweller 13. I’m not sure what is customary in other geographies, but I am finding more and more areas in the US where regulations ban the dumping of gray water onto the ground. I have specifically run into this in Texas state parks and US national parks.

The D13 has a nice sized 21 gallon gray water tank. My issue with it is that there is no means for connecting a dump hose. There is a large PVC drain pipe which has a ball valve and which terminates with a PVC elbow. I brought this up with my dealer prior to purchase and was basically told - that’s the way it is.

My original plan was to install some type of hose connection onto that PVC elbow so that I could attach a drain line for times when I wanted/needed to dispose of the gray water at a dump station. Executing the plan proved to be a bit more difficult. Like all of the other plumbing in the Dweller, the gray water waste pipe is metric sized. It is plumbed in 40mm PVC.

Luckily, it is pretty to solve. The outlet from the gray water tank uses a rubber union joint to connect to the 40mm PVC. It was pretty simple to remove the factory drain pipe assembly and replace it with 1-1/4 inch PVC which has an OD of 42mm. The 1-1/4 inch PVC pipe easily slipped into the rubber union.

Apologies for the poor picture, but this shows what my gray water drain plumbing now looks like.

• 1-1/4 inch PVC pipe attached to existing 40mm rubber union fitting
• 1-1/4 inch PVC ball valve - I will probably replace this with a "true union" ball valve in the future.
• More 1-1/4 inch PVC pipe
• 1-1/4 inch PVC elbow (socket by thread)
• 1-1/4 inch to 1-1/2 inch adapter (male x male)
• My drain hose is currently a 1-1/2 inch swimming pool vacuum hose to which I added threaded “fire hose” fittings. I tried a flat discharge hose that would roll up very small, but it was an absolute failure...it would easily kink and would not drain well under gravity flow.

To Do:

• I still need to figure out an elbow fitting for easily attaching the hose at an RV dump station. Suggestions welcome.
• For version 2 I might use 1-1/4 inch swimming pool vacuum hose with camlock fittings. I think the camlock fittings would make it easier to attach the drain hose and the bill of materials would be simpler. 1-1/4 inch hose should still drain the tank at a reasonable rate.

I was looking at these aquarium metric to imperial adapters to solve the same problem: https://aquariumdepot.ca/products/metric-to-standard-imperial-pvc-adapters-40mm-to-1-1-4

 

[rblitz]

We camped for a few nights in Cottonwood, AZ over Thanksgiving. Got down to the low 30s, definitely below freezing as was evidenced by the dog-bowl-ice-cube in the morning. No frozen lines, and we were using the propane heater overnight (super cozy set at 45). The water lines for the sink would be the only really exposed line that would be at risk of freezing, but you'll want to unhook that on a cold night and close up the kitchen anyway (otherwise you have a huge open hole in the side of your camper directly under your bed). So in short, I think you're safe in mid 20s night temps. I'd have to go look at the water line routes under the trailer. The tanks themselves are mostly covered by the diamond plating. The pump and tank-sourcing valve are inside under the dinette seat. If there ARE any exposed water lines, I would think it would be minimal and easy enough to winterize with some pipe foam. The hose bib on the front of the trailer would be the most exposed line and probably would freeze even in the mid 20s, but you could just not use that until the day warms up and be fine.

Hope that helps.

Here's a youtube video of a guy outfiting his Opus OP 15 with tank heaters and running heating tape on the water lines. I'd imagine the same could be done with a Dweller: