OBI Dweller Review and Discussion

[goawaymore]

@ROA-OFFROAD I've already stated that I appreciate the stuff you guys put out there, so keep on doing what you do. Some of those videos are good to watch when you're considering buying one of these campers/trailers. Not a ton of info out there, and pics videos from parking lots and showrooms get old fast.

As someone who has been pretty interested in a Dweller (but likely will end up going a slightly different route for other reasons), one big plus in considering a Dweller has been everyone providing great info on this thread and the ROA videos. One huge negative is a generic (at best) manufacturer website, a somewhat pathetic owners manual, and limited online presence. Whether true or not, it comes across (to an interested buyer) a bit as having minimal involvement or pride in their product. Would be great if you passed some of that info on to OBI, as well as some of the really relevant improvements that have been done by these owners in this thread. And that owners manual is not a good selling point if you actually like getting into the details of everything you own! Tell OBI to crank up the effort a notch or two! Or at least to try and view it all from the buyers and owners perspective.

 

[ROA-OFFROAD]

To my knowledge, there's no such thing yet. Mine came with a pile of manuals from the manufacturer for the toilet, inverter, stereo, AC, etc. Honestly, if there's something you can't figure out, this thread is turning into a manual.

Nope. Doesnt exist. This forum or creating an owners group is going to be the best manual on the planet.

 

[ROA-OFFROAD]

@ROA-OFFROAD I've already stated that I appreciate the stuff you guys put out there, so keep on doing what you do. Some of those videos are good to watch when you're considering buying one of these campers/trailers. Not a ton of info out there, and pics videos from parking lots and showrooms get old fast.

As someone who has been pretty interested in a Dweller (but likely will end up going a slightly different route for other reasons), one big plus in considering a Dweller has been everyone providing great info on this thread and the ROA videos. One huge negative is a generic (at best) manufacturer website, a somewhat pathetic owners manual, and limited online presence. Whether true or not, it comes across (to an interested buyer) a bit as having minimal involvement or pride in their product. Would be great if you passed some of that info on to OBI, as well as some of the really relevant improvements that have been done by these owners in this thread. And that owners manual is not a good selling point if you actually like getting into the details of everything you own! Tell OBI to crank up the effort a notch or two! Or at least to try and view it all from the buyers and owners perspective.

excellent points. We will pass that on. Which trailers are you interested in? Your feedback is invaluable.

 

[ROA-OFFROAD]

Nope. Doesnt exist. This forum or creating an owners group is going to be the best manual on the planet.

Side note, that doesnt mean there shouldnt be one. I agree trailers should come with manuals.

 

[BernieMulcahy]

Along the lines of building our knowledge base.

Here's the response I got regarding when and how to use the main power cut-off (the red handle on the gauge panel): "The main power switch is used to connect the batteries to all of the accessories. If this is off, your solar panels will always be charging the unit if its in the sun. Shoreline connection will charge your batteries in the main switch on. The Anderson in the front of the camper will charge your unit from your vehicle while the main switch is off also."

They also stated that the batteries are "rvland 100ah AGM". But I don't find any reference to a brand of battery called "rvland" using google.

Regarding the January 2022 updates

• The gauge panel is to the left of the entry door, behind the couch. This adds more cabinet & drawer to the front interior.
• Batteries are under the couch (as opposed to under the bed)
• Water tank valve under the bed (as opposed to under the couch)
• The refrigerator is an ICECO VL90 ProD
• Added an Anderson connecter (or something similar) at the tongue for charging from a car dc to dc. I would assume you can also connect a portable solar panel (with controller) to this connecter. That is going to be my route I think.

At some point the sink/stove cover went from wood to all stainless (at least from what I can tell in various videos).

 

[gendlert]

Along the lines of building our knowledge base.

Here's the response I got regarding when and how to use the main power cut-off (the red handle on the gauge panel): "The main power switch is used to connect the batteries to all of the accessories. If this is off, your solar panels will always be charging the unit if its in the sun. Shoreline connection will charge your batteries in the main switch on. The Anderson in the front of the camper will charge your unit from your vehicle while the main switch is off also."

They also stated that the batteries are "rvland 100ah AGM". But I don't find any reference to a brand of battery called "rvland" using google.

Regarding the January 2022 updates

• The gauge panel is to the left of the entry door, behind the couch. This adds more cabinet & drawer to the front interior.
• Batteries are under the couch (as opposed to under the bed)
• Water tank valve under the bed (as opposed to under the couch)
• The refrigerator is an ICECO VL90 ProD
• Added an Anderson connecter (or something similar) at the tongue for charging from a car dc to dc. I would assume you can also connect a portable solar panel (with controller) to this connecter. That is going to be my route I think.

At some point the sink/stove cover went from wood to all stainless (at least from what I can tell in various videos).

• The water connectors for the kitchen sink also changed position from hard-to-reach underneath to easy-to-connect next to the sink.

 

[ryels1983]

Along the lines of building our knowledge base.

Here's the response I got regarding when and how to use the main power cut-off (the red handle on the gauge panel): "The main power switch is used to connect the batteries to all of the accessories. If this is off, your solar panels will always be charging the unit if its in the sun. Shoreline connection will charge your batteries in the main switch on. The Anderson in the front of the camper will charge your unit from your vehicle while the main switch is off also."

They also stated that the batteries are "rvland 100ah AGM". But I don't find any reference to a brand of battery called "rvland" using google.

Regarding the January 2022 updates

• The gauge panel is to the left of the entry door, behind the couch. This adds more cabinet & drawer to the front interior.
• Batteries are under the couch (as opposed to under the bed)
• Water tank valve under the bed (as opposed to under the couch)
• The refrigerator is an ICECO VL90 ProD
• Added an Anderson connecter (or something similar) at the tongue for charging from a car dc to dc. I would assume you can also connect a portable solar panel (with controller) to this connecter. That is going to be my route I think.

At some point the sink/stove cover went from wood to all stainless (at least from what I can tell in various videos).

Wait, so how do I keep the batteries from charging? Red switch on then what? Also How do I run the short power without batteries charging? This is my 1st Camper and no info online and these manuals are a joke. The RV dealer tried to steal our fridge from us when we went to pick it up and I was a bit pissed for the orientation, I dint remember much besides the argument.

 

[ryels1983]

Really quite disappointed right now on the NONEXISTANT customer service. Doesn't make me feel great about such a big purchase. The links on OBI's website don't even work. NO Social media? No IG or even facebook? Did I just get scammed? I still don't understand how to run the outlets without the batteries charging, I don't even know how much the batteries should be charged. The display says 13.8v. Can they overcharge? A simple IG account could solve a lot of these issues. If these guys disappear next year how bad does that tank re sale value?
Sorry if I sound like I'm going full Karen right now, I just woke up from a very nice nap and read that the batteries will charge with the main red switch off. Sheesh what the heck. Is this true? Who knows. That's the problem.

The Camper is nice and we drove 600 miles home from the dealer. It pulled great with a Hemi Durango tow group 4. We went through West Yellowstone so not too steep of climbs. Roads in Idaho are awesome and we had virtually no sway 75mph no problem. Montana on the other hand has terrible roads and wind that changed towing completely. The wind streams get weird up here, drive safe.
Its easy to hook up and set up. No easy way to drain the back fresh water tank, that's kind of lame. Everything worked and nothing was broken like the black series we looked at.

I really like the camper so far and want OBI to do well. My suggestion would be to give a couple of these away to some young IG couples and get them posting. Clicks pay the billz.

 

[nemesisnight]

So I picked up my Dweller 15 last night and overall am very happy with the rig. Perfect balance of what we wanted and needed for all the luxuries off-grid. I have 4 kids so plan on incorporating another bed either similar to what ROA did or over the king bed to preserve headroom, no idea yet.

I will definitely be doing the shock swap as my side to side wobble was quite bad even going 50-55 towing with a LC200 series. My front tongue is a few inches higher than I ideally want as I wanted to see how much it sagged once I fill all the tanks and have it loaded with gear up front plus 6 humans. So that may have some play into it but still, it was unfortunately a bit scary at one point so that's going to have to be mandatory.

Does anyone know if the batteries charge from the 7 way like most other trailers or will it only charge from the extra Anderson plug that's also up front? If so it's kinda annoying to have to use both. Any recommendations on the best way to even wire that? Would I have to run wiring all the way to my vehicle battery, or I do have a 120v plug outlet in the rear of the LC.....wonder if I could use something to plug that in to the Anderson plug somehow??? I plan on using the front Anderson cord to charge the house batteries with a 200w renogy suitcase that has a charge controller built in. Will charging in this manor supplement the 300w that's on the roof (can they both charge at the same time or will the charge controllers clash so to say)?

I would love to know if anyone is able to figure out a soft start on the AC so it can run off a 2000-2200 inverter generator. Otherwise lugging around a larger generator would be a pain. This Texas heat is brutal, I'm used to Utah camping and chilly nights in the mountains but now may actually need AC and need a solution. Not sure if I would have to just go to a 3200w generator but would prefer to save the money since I already own a 2200w and like others would like to swap out to lithium eventually.

I have this exact same IceCo fridge from another camper already and personally have not been impressed with my other unit. Maybe if the temps are below 80 it works fine but here in Texas and it's 90-100 plus degrees out the fridge was aweful. Sometimes it would freeze, then randomly warm and each side would warm and freeze beyond my setpoints and all my frozen items would melt and fridge items would freeze. I even had them warranty it and the new unit did the same thing. I guess I'll try this one and maybe I got 2 bad units but don't have high expectations.

 

[Chasingopenspaces]

So I picked up my Dweller 15 last night and overall am very happy with the rig. Perfect balance of what we wanted and needed for all the luxuries off-grid. I have 4 kids so plan on incorporating another bed either similar to what ROA did or over the king bed to preserve headroom, no idea yet.

I will definitely be doing the shock swap as my side to side wobble was quite bad even going 50-55 towing with a LC200 series. My front tongue is a few inches higher than I ideally want as I wanted to see how much it sagged once I fill all the tanks and have it loaded with gear up front plus 6 humans. So that may have some play into it but still, it was unfortunately a bit scary at one point so that's going to have to be mandatory.

Does anyone know if the batteries charge from the 7 way like most other trailers or will it only charge from the extra Anderson plug that's also up front? If so it's kinda annoying to have to use both. Any recommendations on the best way to even wire that? Would I have to run wiring all the way to my vehicle battery, or I do have a 120v plug outlet in the rear of the LC.....wonder if I could use something to plug that in to the Anderson plug somehow??? I plan on using the front Anderson cord to charge the house batteries with a 200w renogy suitcase that has a charge controller built in. Will charging in this manor supplement the 300w that's on the roof (can they both charge at the same time or will the charge controllers clash so to say)?

I would love to know if anyone is able to figure out a soft start on the AC so it can run off a 2000-2200 inverter generator. Otherwise lugging around a larger generator would be a pain. This Texas heat is brutal, I'm used to Utah camping and chilly nights in the mountains but now may actually need AC and need a solution. Not sure if I would have to just go to a 3200w generator but would prefer to save the money since I already own a 2200w and like others would like to swap out to lithium eventually.

I have this exact same IceCo fridge from another camper already and personally have not been impressed with my other unit. Maybe if the temps are below 80 it works fine but here in Texas and it's 90-100 plus degrees out the fridge was aweful. Sometimes it would freeze, then randomly warm and each side would warm and freeze beyond my setpoints and all my frozen items would melt and fridge items would freeze. I even had them warranty it and the new unit did the same thing. I guess I'll try this one and maybe I got 2 bad units but don't have high expectations.

Interested to see what you do for kid beds, I have two and have been interested in the dweller but leaning towards the OP 15 due to the bunks

 

[gendlert]

@nemesisnight congrats! Saw that you are also in the "sold my GravelerXT for a Dweller" group. Welcome. My Dweller doesn't have the Anderson, but it's an upgrade I'm considering for my truck/trailer. I would wire it directly to the alternator at the front of the truck, not try and use the inverter to 120V as that will eat up a lot of efficiency, I think. There are certainly some electrical folks following this that can speak more smarter than me about that. My batteries do not charge through the 7-pin (but they did on the GravelerXT, which is weird). I'm still not certain about how all of the charge controllers "talk" to one another. I called Renogy, and they said that the Solar charger "just knows when the converter charger is plugged in" but there's no way for me to tell that through any of the interfaces that I can see. I imagine the converter gets the batteries to full charge (float) and the solar controllers sees that voltage as the same float and stops charging the batteries, but I'm not certain. Renogy has not been as wholly helpful as I'd hoped.

@ryels1983, I think this is why the battery disconnect is between the batteries and the accessories, so you can eliminate draw and let the controllers do what they do and keep your bank healthy, as opposed to running the shore power with the batteries disconnected. That being said, I'm sure you could install another disconnect between your two charge controllers (solar and converter) to take the batteries out of the loop completely and use the outlets, but I think you'll lose the lights, stereo, USB, and pump because they only run on DC. If I recall, you can still run the fridge with an AC outlet in the fridge bay, but you'd have to switch out the plug on the unit. But those disconnects might be helpful for long-term storage if you needed that. The only thing I can tell that is directly wired as a draw from the battery bank when you've disconnected the accessories is the step (no draw) and the CO/Propane alarm. Again, someone on here probably knows more than I do, but those are my initial thoughts.

As for the AC, from what I can tell from the wiring, it's a 120V AC unit that necessarily runs from the inverter. It's a 2000W inverter, so if you have a 2200W peak generator, or if you're plugged into shore power, it's still limited by the 2000W inverter, right? Or am I misunderstanding how the inverters work? I think it should work both ways. I have tested the AC on shore power in my driveway and it works, but I have not tried it with the generator in the field. We have more elevation than Texas 'round here, fortunately, so I haven't needed it. Looks like soft starts are relatively inexpensive, though. Now that @ROA-OFFROAD is following, have you guys played with this at all? I saw in one of your videos that Nate is living in a Dweller, so this might be something more essential for that situation.

And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm definitely considering myself an "early adopter" on the OBI brand. I'm willing to cut them a couple years of slack. I wasn't around in the early days of Airstream, but I bet it didn't all go smoothly at the beginning. OBI are selling lots of units, which appear to be good quality, so I don't think they're gonna disappear. As they grow, I assume so will their support. Just my philosophy, but it keeps me grounded.

 

[BernieMulcahy]

Agreed, the support is less than minimal. You can email them at info@obicamper.com and they will usually provide answers to your questions.

I am by no means an expert yet on the Dweller, or on campers in general but here's some answers to your questions.

As you can see from earlier post, the batteries are basically always charging if the panels are in sunlight. The charger used is a smart charger, so no, you can't over charge them. If your camper is in a garage (with no solar) you'll still want to keep the batteries charged. You can do this by attaching to shore power and turning on the inverter. Again, a smart charger and you will not overcharge.

The charger/inverter is smart, if it is connected to shore power, then the batteries will not be used (and they will get charged). 13.8v is basically fully charged.

No, the camper is not charged from your vehicle using the 7-pin connecter. From what I've learned here on the forum the wiring is not big enough to supply any meaningful current to charge through the 7-pin. While driving you have the charge coming from the solar panels, even if it is cloudy. I'm planning on using the anderson connector at the front to attach a portable solar panel/controller for times when the trailer is parked in the shade (just like nameisnight). Yes those panels will add to the roof panels. I might also get a dc to dc converter and attach to my vehicle alternator instead of a portable generator (suggested by another user in this thread). I haven't fully traced the anderson plug wires but from my preliminary view, it looks like they simply run back to the main wiring blocks under the bed attached to the main leads going into the charger/inverter.

I suggest that you read through all of the provided documentation, and even download additional manuals from the various product web sites. Sounds like your dealer experience was worse than mine (no issue with my fridge). They were not very helpful at all. One thing that I learned from the inverter manual is that the main switch on the inverter should be in the "off" position always, to allow for the remote panel (on the panel below the bed) to be used to turn the inverter on/off.

I still need to figure out the best way to attach a trickle charger for long term storage. I keep mine in a garage, so no solar, and I don't want to have to keep it plugged in with the charger/inverter on to charge the batteries. My three batteries are wired to the controller separately - each batter has direct leads to the controller. So they are wired in parallel, but they are not daisy-chained. I researched this method, and apparently it is technically the best method, but almost no one does it because you need more wire, and therefore more cost.

So far the few owners on this thread have been a great help.

 

[BernieMulcahy]

Regarding the ICECO fridge. The only experience I have with any 12v fridge is this ICECO. When camping over the fourth, Friday and Saturday were in the mid 90's, and Sunday Monday were high 80's. I had the the unit set at 37 on one side and 7 on the other. We were parked in the shade, except the 5 hour drive each way. The unit worked fine keeping things cold and frozen. With the one exception that I mentioned previously where the voltage sensor on the unit is too sensitive and shutdown when I was at 12.2 volts. I changed the setting from High to Medium and it started working again just fine.

 

[BernieMulcahy]

My method for draining the rear water tank is to open the hose spigot and let the pump empty most of the water. Then I remove the white threaded plug on the right side of the tank to get the rest of the water out. I'm sure somebody on this board, smarter than me, will figure the thread size and come up with a valve or similar to make it easier.

 

[gendlert]

Just for reference, is this the hard to reach or the easy to reach?

View attachment 731647

Easy to reach. Lucky.