OBI Dweller Review and Discussion

WillySwan

Well-known member
Does this camper have a return duct for the A/C? Or does it pull ambient temperature air from outside?

It recirculates air. There is a louvered grill under the bed.

I can attest that the AC works very well in humid central TX weather at ~95F exterior temp. I would turn on the AC about an hour before bed and the interior would cool to 72 no problem.

Now that the mystery of the remote control has been solved, I am looking forward to getting back on shore power to test how well all the additional features work.


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WillySwan

Well-known member
New question: does your entry door lock suck pretty bad? I can't get mine to lock from the outside. And if it locks from the inside, I'm stuck reaching through the window.

Operating the door is very non-intuitive. There “should be” a set of instructions for the door included in the documentation. Read through it and operating the door will make more sense. It actually works very well.

The first time I spent a night in the Dweller I was by myself. I got the door so jammed up that I had to climb out a window.


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gendlert

Well-known member
An hour before bed? Yes. It works great when the sun isn't beating on it. Now tell me how well it works when it's high noon and you have the kitchen slide out and it's 95+ outside.
Not gonna lie. That "camping" scenario sounds awful. That would keep me home. You're gonna use a lot of power trying to fight those temps no matter what trailer and AC you've got. I would recommend you get a bigger generator unit if that's going to be a very common situation for you.

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Oliver242

New member
Thanks! I am having the exact same issue with the propane alarm on my Dweller.

With regards to the table, I am thinking about leaving mine behind and using a folding aluminum camping table (fancy TV tray) instead. The table is fine, but I find it takes up a lot of space and is a pain to set up.
I actually removed the table completely which includes the mount that is attached to the bench. It was more of a hassle than it was worth. I did buy a Gazelle G6 gazebo tent with a bug screen and that’s where my wife and I hang out at night. We have a table and lights in there.
 

Oliver242

New member
The outdoor stove on my Dweller appears to be designed primarily for interior use. There are neither windscreens on the burners or side panels to protect the burners from the wind. It does not take much of a breeze to really mess up the flame when you are trying to cook on a windy day.

To try to fix this, I cut out a set of side panels from an old stainless steel oven-hood I had kicking around. The panels attach together with slots and tabs. The back panel sits behind the tempered glass stove cover and the side panels slot into it.

I made two different widths of optional front panels in case they are needed. The narrower front panel can be used with the sink lid down. The wider panel is for my larger cast iron skillet.

These panels will store in sink/stove area along with the water and propane hoses. I still need to make a storage bag to keep them from sliding around

So far, I have only tested this in my driveway, but they seem to really make a difference when it is windy.

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I’m not the happiest person with regards to the stove. In reality, you can only use one burner at a time when using a 10”-12” pan. I did buy a Jet Boil 2 burner stove. I love that thing! It packs up small and I can put 2 pans on it at the same time. Boils water very fast! I put it on the platform that covers the stove and sink and I can cook inside if the weather turns bad.
 

gendlert

Well-known member
I’m not the happiest person with regards to the stove. In reality, you can only use one burner at a time when using a 10”-12” pan. I did buy a Jet Boil 2 burner stove. I love that thing! It packs up small and I can put 2 pans on it at the same time. Boils water very fast! I put it on the platform that covers the stove and sink and I can cook inside if the weather turns bad.
Admittedly, we found pots and pans to be a PITA when camping, both from the space issue you described, to washing stupid pots and pans. I still haven't used my stove. I just bring the grill and do foil packs of egg bites for breakfast, and a variety of other foil packs for dinner (chicken and rice with broccoli, sausage and veggies, taco packs, etc.). Requires a little more prep ahead of time, but I'd rather do dishes in my kitchen at home and have zero clean-up while camping. And we make coffee with the JetBoil and a pourover, which is still the best way to make coffee that we've found. Once I switch to lithium, I might try a drip pot in the trailer, but the power draw is just so big.
 
We use a grill for 75% of our cooking. I used to use a separate stove for fry pan use. I just went with a propane griddle (happened to go with Razor), and only one trip so far using it, but I loved it. No more fry pans. For the occasional pot to boil water or to heat coffee/tea the included stove is fine. The exterior storage on the upper left side is where I store 3 portable tables, propane grill, propane griddle and camping mat.
 

50pentz

New member
Has anyone found a jack that's tall enough to change tires? (yes, I used the jack point just aft of the wheel)

At home, I had to stack two blocks of wood on top of my floor jack to create enough elevation and that barely lifted the tire off the ground for removal.

Also, has anyone found proper torque settings for the lug nuts?
 

50pentz

New member
re. the lack of an owners manual. Quick thought from when I was first looking at what was available out there for campers like the Dweller. I'd spent a little time with google while I was looking, and what popped up appears to be the same owner/rep for OBI and for MDC USA, or at least, both under the same corporate name and with the same company address in the US. The MDC AUSrv13 and 15 have a similar box and look to the Dweller (I guess Opus does too, but I think that's a completely different group). The Dweller was more interesting to me in layout and choices, so I never really spent much time digging around into other campers that were similar. However, the MDC 13 and 15 do both have pretty detailed owners manuals on their mdcusa website, which included some schematics, fastener torque details, and maintenance/troubleshooting. I have zero idea whether there is actually any shared DNA between the two companies 13s and 15s or not, but it seems like it wouldn't be completely unrealistic. That said, might be worth a quick look from a few of you that have gotten to know your Dwellers pretty well. There may be a number of relevant pages in those owner manuals that would be good to call out in this thread for new and future Dweller owners.

May be a complete waste of time too.....so apologies ahead of time if that's the case. ;)
This was incredibly helpful, thank you for posting! I found a picture of the proper jack points
 

WillySwan

Well-known member
Has anyone found a jack that's tall enough to change tires? (yes, I used the jack point just aft of the wheel)

At home, I had to stack two blocks of wood on top of my floor jack to create enough elevation and that barely lifted the tire off the ground for removal.

Also, has anyone found proper torque settings for the lug nuts?

See my posts #75 and #80 in this thread.

That little bottle jack I have takes up very little room in the storage bin and works well for jacking the trailer.


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So I am planning on taking a trip to the Ozarks in Arkansas (probably mostly around St. Francis area for the dispersed camping) this weekend for the first time ever. First off if anyone has any suggestions or secret camp spots or places to see please send them my way. I know it's pretty low water right now with lack of rain but that can change quickly around there it seems. I am wondering how my D15 caravan would do if I were to encounter any deeper water crossings. The main areas I think I would need to worry about would be the door vent down low but I suppose water would probably mostly stay on the inner metal step unless submerged super deep and I would have other problems probably turning into a boat anyway. And I also worry about the AC bottom duct. It appears pretty well sealed all around the unit and if it intakes air from inside I would hope it's designed for water intrusion/submersion. It appears to be as far as I can tell with mostly just the condensation drain and blower fan (not sure the actual term but whatever cools the coils) coming out the bottom. Thoughts?
 
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WillySwan

Well-known member
And we make coffee with the JetBoil and a pourover, which is still the best way to make coffee that we've found. Once I switch to lithium, I might try a drip pot in the trailer, but the power draw is just so big.

I'm also a pour-over coffee fan. On days when we can't drag ourselves outside to make coffee, we are using an 1800W induction plate for indoor morning coffee. On power level 6 (1200W), it will heat my 1L pour-over pot from ~60F to boiling in about 5-1/2 minutes. If my math is right, that is "in the ballpark" of 10 amp-hrs at 12V (exclusive of efficiency losses).

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Curious if any reason for the choice of the 1200W setting? Or if you've played around with settings to see any difference in AH used to get to a full boil at higher settings? Either way, the portable induction cooktops are an awesome add to any camper with a halfway decent battery bank and inverter!
 

WillySwan

Well-known member
Curious if any reason for the choice of the 1200W setting? Or if you've played around with settings to see any difference in AH used to get to a full boil at higher settings? Either way, the portable induction cooktops are an awesome add to any camper with a halfway decent battery bank and inverter!

I have not really experimented with it much. On P6 it is quiet and “fast enough” for me. At the higher power settings it makes a high frequency noise that I don’t care for early in the AM.


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