Thank you
OBI Dweller Review and Discussion
- Thread starter gendlert
- Start date
Great stuff. What is the recommended torque for the wheels?Dwellers have good bones, and if you can negotiate a discount, more power to you! Mass production has its flaws in RVs, just like any auto manufacturer or home-builder. You'll likely have to navigate a couple issues if you buy a Dweller, but nothing that wouldn't be a deal-breaker, especially if you do get that discount, like Obsessed recommends (it's good advice to look for last year's models).
As for delivery inspection, I'd want to check for:
Anyone else got other things they can think of?
- Lug torque (a few have been over-torqued; would be problematic to change a tire in the field)
- Gas strut functionality (make sure things that are supposed to open stay open, and close without too much trouble)
- Latch/slide check around the trailer
- Trailer "lean" (look at the front of the D15 and see if it's leaning when parked; I think this can be fixed by switching the side the tongue jack is mounted on)
- Bathroom caulk check (if they've been sitting on the lot for a while, you might see the seams spreading a bit)
- Propane line check (make them light the stove)
- Plumbing leak check (run the sinks and shower, then check under the bed and dinette for any sign of water)
- Tire pressure before you take it home; should be pretty high for the tow on the road (I think it's 72psi?), and you can adjust it as you see fit
- Rear brake light/turn signal check when hooked up to YOUR tow vehicle (should be done before EVERY trip, but make sure it's all working while you're still there)
I highly recommend becoming your own mobile RV mechanic regardless of brand you purchase. I've yet to see a thread of any brand of trailer that hasn't included owners making mods or fixing stuff, even Kimberley and Trail Marker. Kingdom might be the exception so far, but that's only because the mods have been designed into the plan real-time by the prime user.In almost every fix I've come across, doing it myself has taken far less time and effort than taking it to the dealer for warranty issues. Nothing has been much more expensive than the gas getting back and forth to the dealer would have been, either. And you get to learn a bit more about your trailer.
Campers aren't all that hard to work on, and most fixes and mods are simplified with a YouTube video. The bigger rigs are actually easier in many respects because you've got room to work with for plumbing, wiring, and storage solutions. D15s are cool. If you don't need the bunks, though, I think D13s are even cooler, but I'm definitely biased. Good luck with whatever you get!
Equal-i-zer is installed, might have to lose the front mud flap, but it all fits and tows 100% better now on my Tacoma, no more squatting at all. Next are the Monroe shocks. Might have the WD a little over adjusted rn, but it's late and I didn't have the water tanks filled up.
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120 ft-lbs is what I use. Check my post #75 in this tread.
Can you take a close up pic of your set-up and post it ? I'm looking at going with that config with our Tacoma and was wondering how it would be done. Thanks.
Thanks
Yeah, definitely. So I've got a 2023 TRD Off-Road, it tows it fine w/o the WD hitch if you're OK porpoising down the road and don't mind the rear squat
, so what I did was look through all of the WD hitches I could find, and found that the Equal-i-zer head on the 6000-+ hitches had a nice square body where the McHitch receiver could bolt to nicely without having to weld on the extra plate that McHitch sells for the other WD hitches.My dealer lost the 1-1/4" shank that the McHitch comes with, so I've got the 1" shank in there with a spacer pin until my new 1-1/4" shank comes in from mchitch.us, but the kit is:
I went with the longer shank to try and clear the tailgate, which probably isn't needed honestly, putting it up where it's near the tailgate is actually too high for the trailer, but the 2nd to top is basically level:
This also meant I needed to extend the safety chains, but that was just a double 7/16" clevis and a 2ft piece of 9000+lb chain to extend it.
The Equal-i-zer saddles are supposed to be measured 27-32" back from the center of the ball, which means basically from the center of the stud, not so much the pivot point (the u-joint) on the hitch. On my D13, you can see that's right at the cross-section of the A-Frame is ~29" which is right in the middle.
I had to move the jockey wheel to the other side and back a bit to avoid hitting my water spigot as the front of the jockey wheel used to sit right where the WD saddle is now. I think I might pick up one of these that is easily removable and just toss it in the front box instead of trying to flip it backwards:
I might end up just entirely replacing the safety chains, since the ones it comes with are a bit overkill anyway, and I don't like the idea of the double-clevis in between the 2 sections even though it's 9000lb working load should be plenty.
I'd probably just go with the standard shank, but still get the same hitch.
Nice, thanks for sharing.
Did the larger jacks require any additional fitting or fabrication or did they just mount in the same location as the OEM jacks?
Hey guys, yes we did the big leap.. I just bought a D15. Your comments steer us to the D15. We looked real hard at the Conqueror but it didn't work for the wife. The stove was too high. She would be cooking at arm pit level. Yeah, could of built a platform but no. I look forward sharing with you folks. Thanks again for all the great info.
henderson.341
New member
Where did you get the big ARK front jockey wheel that detaches?
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Detachable:
Other jacks:
You could probably fit 30" ones under it, but these and some stackers is more than sufficient:
They pretty much bolted in place. The OEM Chinese jacks use much larger bolts (5/8" head iirc), but the saddles fit perfectly. I just put some stainless washers on the smaller (13mm head) hardware that came with the ARKs and lifted them up a bit into the saddles before tightening everything down. With a few stackers I can actually change the tire without having to get a jack out, and it made changing the shocks even easier with it up a few inches all around.
So are you actually leveling the rig with these? I wasn't clear from ARK's product page if leveling (i.e., supporting the full weight) was an application. I assume it would be since the load capacity is so high. How easy is it to crank them? Can you use a battery-powered drill to do that or does it require too much torque?
PS: enjoy the beach. I'm doing the same in July.
So instead of the beach, I decided to head up to the national forest instead, got a chance to tow ~75 miles and then come set it up on some super un-level ground. I used an impact to drop them down all the way, but just did them by hand the last little bit because the impact was super loud and there's another camper a little bit behind me and I didn't want to make a ton of noise. They're super easy to turn with the included handle, or with just a 3/4" socket on an impact/drill/whatever.
The front ones are only an inch or two out, and the back ones are almost to the max "lifting" extension line, and picked up the rear enough to make things actually level.