OBI Dweller Review and Discussion

[Xid_az]

Here‘s a picture of that Anderson(?) plug.View attachment 816945

Based on all of the photos and measurements I did with calipers, I'm 99% sure it's an Anderson Powerpole 75 connector. With that assumption, i've ordered a PP75 to PP45 cable, since the PP45's seem more prevalent. I don't plan on running 75 amps through this, since it's just going to be for my 200 watt Renogy suitcase, so I was fine with the step down. The pin inside the housing matched the PP75 as well. The diameter of the red or black wires measured out to 4.8mm, which seems in line with a 8AWG wire.
I decided to also get a 25 ft 10AWG Anderson pp45 to pp45 extension cable to run to the suitcase, in addition to a short PP45 to MC4 cable.
My hope is to be able to park in the shade and run the suitcase in the full sun to keep things topped off.
On the two trips we already took this month, the 300Ah LiFePo4 batteries did well running an air fryer, electric griddle and electric kettle, while keeping the ICECO Go20 going.
Next on my list is adding the Victron smart shunt and swapping the factory Renogy PWM controller to a Victron MMPT controller and possibly some other rewiring of the batteries to a different distribution bar.

 

[LaBlaze]

Shoot me a DM and I'll walk you through it. It's actually super easy.

I follow your YouTube channel, did you do a video when you changed out the anderson plug? 😁

 

[CowboyKyle]

I follow your YouTube channel, did you do a video when you changed out the anderson plug? 😁

I didn't, because I didn't change it out. I added it from scratch. You bring up a great idea though. I should do a walk around video for the stuff I've done. It might help others. Did yours come with a factory 12v plug on the hitch? If so, it's super easy to swap for something more common. Let me know if you want/need more info.

 

[LaBlaze]

I didn't, because I didn't change it out. I added it from scratch. You bring up a great idea though. I should do a walk around video for the stuff I've done. It might help others. Did yours come with a factory 12v plug on the hitch? If so, it's super easy to swap for something more common. Let me know if you want/need more info.

It came with that red plug on the hitch. We would definitely love more info on how you did it!! Your video on the shocks was great!

 

[Dweller Feller]

It came with that red plug on the hitch. We would definitely love more info on how you did it!! Your video on the shocks was great!

Good idea Cowboy ! We get by far more information from this site than obi or the dealerships. People pitching in with videos or pics is really helpful.

 

[Singler3360]

Has anyone experienced bending and cracking of the latch plate for the pop out bed platform? Specifically, the thin metal plate that holds the rear bed platform up when stowed? Yesterday I reinforced both sides with powder coated steel L brackets and 1/4" bolts from HD. Took some cutting and drilling.

 

[CowboyKyle]

Has anyone experienced bending and cracking of the latch plate for the pop out bed platform? Specifically, the thin metal plate that holds the rear bed platform up when stowed? Yesterday I reinforced both sides with powder coated steel L brackets and 1/4" bolts from HD. Took some cutting and drilling.

Pictures?

 

[kevin8119]

Okay, I've upgraded my batteries to 3x140AH LifePo4e batteries. I did custom battery charge settings, 13.2v starts the charge, 14.5v stops the charge, solar set for lithium and 14.5v boost.

Today I started having a strange problem, the inverter charger started acting weird. The overhead lights were pulsing, and I remember someone else having similar issues with a fully charged (14.5v) lithium battery bank. So I turned off all the 12v loads and the inverter alarm starts going off.

I open the compartment under the bed and have an Error 05 which is "Output Short Circuit".
I flip the breaker to reset the inverter, turn it back on and no error. I run a 12v load and it's fine. I turn off the 12v load and the error comes back.
I look at the output voltage on the inverter (no load on the inverter and not on shore power) and it is shifty, so is the battery voltage it is showing.

I have reset the inverter to standard the standard lithium battery profile and turned the boost charge on the solar controller down to 14v but you'll see the battery voltage and output current just moving like crazy.
See video - https://youtube.com/shorts/6D10LVrAN-k

I'm going to see what it does with one battery at a time connected to see if there is any obvious issue but I am lost on this one. Planning to contact Renogy to ask questions unless someone here has some ideas to try first.

 

[Singler3360]

I recently had strange behavior with the Renogy inverter charger in that it was not charging the 5 x LiFePo battery bank fully. Your mileage may vary, but ultimately it turned out the two little screws that held the unit off the floor had bounced out. This resulted in the unit resting on some wires underneath. I “rehung” the unit with four 1/4” lag bolts and the problem went away. Have you checked that nothing is getting pinched?

 

[kevin8119]

I recently had strange behavior with the Renogy inverter charger in that it was not charging the 5 x LiFePo battery bank fully. Your mileage may vary, but ultimately it turned out the two little screws that held the unit off the floor had bounced out. This resulted in the unit resting on some wires underneath. I “rehung” the unit with four 1/4” lag bolts and the problem went away. Have you checked that nothing is getting pinched?

Not yet. I didn’t notice anything strange with wiring other than some torn shrink tube on the positive battery bolt going into the inverter. Nothing grounding to it so it shouldn’t matter.

I’ll add a better loose stuff audit to the list. Thank you.

 

[Xid_az]

Okay, I've upgraded my batteries to 3x140AH LifePo4e batteries. I did custom battery charge settings, 13.2v starts the charge, 14.5v stops the charge, solar set for lithium and 14.5v boost.

Today I started having a strange problem, the inverter charger started acting weird. The overhead lights were pulsing, and I remember someone else having similar issues with a fully charged (14.5v) lithium battery bank. So I turned off all the 12v loads and the inverter alarm starts going off.

I open the compartment under the bed and have an Error 05 which is "Output Short Circuit".
I flip the breaker to reset the inverter, turn it back on and no error. I run a 12v load and it's fine. I turn off the 12v load and the error comes back.
I look at the output voltage on the inverter (no load on the inverter and not on shore power) and it is shifty, so is the battery voltage it is showing.

I have reset the inverter to standard the standard lithium battery profile and turned the boost charge on the solar controller down to 14v but you'll see the battery voltage and output current just moving like crazy.
See video - https://youtube.com/shorts/6D10LVrAN-k

I'm going to see what it does with one battery at a time connected to see if there is any obvious issue but I am lost on this one. Planning to contact Renogy to ask questions unless someone here has some ideas to try first.

I had some ceiling light pulsing after I switched to Lithium as well, I don't think that I ever looked at the Renogy Inverter while this was going on, but I did throw a multimeter on the positive and negative 12V distribution blocks and the voltage was moving up and down in a similar fashion to what your video shows.
What I ended up doing was lowering the Renogy PWM charge controller's output from the boost of 14.6V to 12V. The pulsing stopped. I then slowly increased the boost voltage and I hit a point where it started pulsing started again, around 13.5 if I recall correctly. I lowered the boost voltage down a few tenths and the lights seemed to stay steady. This was all during the day, without a cloud in the sky. My batteries have stay well charged so far and I've not had any more pulsing. I'm attributing it to the PWM charge controller, whether it's going bad or just something the PWM does with these particular lithium's, I don't know. I have a Victron MPPT waiting to be installed, so I'll see what happens with that when I set a higher boost voltage.

 

[Singler3360]

I had some ceiling light pulsing after I switched to Lithium as well, I don't think that I ever looked at the Renogy Inverter while this was going on, but I did throw a multimeter on the positive and negative 12V distribution blocks and the voltage was moving up and down in a similar fashion to what your video shows.
What I ended up doing was lowering the Renogy PWM charge controller's output from the boost of 14.6V to 12V. The pulsing stopped. I then slowly increased the boost voltage and I hit a point where it started pulsing started again, around 13.5 if I recall correctly. I lowered the boost voltage down a few tenths and the lights seemed to stay steady. This was all during the day, without a cloud in the sky. My batteries have stay well charged so far and I've not had any more pulsing. I'm attributing it to the PWM charge controller, whether it's going bad or just something the PWM does with these particular lithium's, I don't know. I have a Victron MPPT waiting to be installed, so I'll see what happens with that when I set a higher boost voltage.

Interesting the solar charge controller affected the inverter/charger to such a degree. I don’t know enough to guess how this might be. Any ideas? I upgraded to a Victron MPPT controller at time of purchase so don’t know any different. Thanks for the suggestion this might be the reason for the lights flickering every now and then.

 

[Xid_az]

Interesting the solar charge controller affected the inverter/charger to such a degree. I don’t know enough to guess how this might be. Any ideas? I upgraded to a Victron MPPT controller at time of purchase so don’t know any different. Thanks for the suggestion this might be the reason for the lights flickering every now and then.

Uh oh. If you have the Victron MPPT, then you just dashed my hopes of the Victron solving that problem.
Let me know if you find a setting in the Victron that provides a solution, so I can try it once I get it wired up.

 

[Xid_az]

Here‘s a picture of that Anderson(?) plug.View attachment 816945

My cable just came in and I can confirm that it's an Anderson Powerpole 75. See pictures below for the mating. As soon as I can swap my Renogy suitcase's MC4 connectors to be on the correct wires (thanks Renogy! ) I'll confirm that it's electrically mated as I suspect it will be and will confirm that I see the power flowing into the batteries.

Here's the cable I purchased: https://powerwerx.com/powerpole-pp75-to-pp45-adapter

 

[Singler3360]

Uh oh. If you have the Victron MPPT, then you just dashed my hopes of the Victron solving that problem.
Let me know if you find a setting in the Victron that provides a solution, so I can try it once I get it wired up.

Honestly, if you hadn’t mentioned the flickering lights, I wouldn’t thought it a problem worth tracking down. It only happens very briefly when it does at all. I wouldn’t say the Victron has a problem really.