OBI Dweller Review and Discussion

[WillySwan]

A week or so ago, RVs of America - ROA Off-Road Trailers posted a couple of videos of them with a Dweller 15 and a Dweller 13 in Moab.

Obviously these videos are sales tools which tend to show the product in the best possible light, but they a good job of demonstrating the capabilities of the Dwellers with regards to the independent suspension and the departure angles. This is way beyond anything I plan to do with my D13, but it is nice to know I could once I get a proper tow vehicle.

BTW, I have no association with ROA and I did not purchase my Dweller from them.

 

[Obsessed2findARuggedHybid]

A week or so ago, RVs of America - ROA Off-Road Trailers posted a couple of videos of them with a Dweller 15 and a Dweller 13 in Moab.

Obviously these videos are sales tools which tend to show the product in the best possible light, but they a good job of demonstrating the capabilities of the Dwellers with regards to the independent suspension and the departure angles. This is way beyond anything I plan to do with my D13, but it is nice to know I could once I get a proper tow vehicle.

BTW, I have no association with ROA and I did not purchase my Dweller from them.

Ya they make these videos pulling an empty Dweller with an empty tow vehicle. Witch in my not so humble opinion is not giving anyone a real life idea of what a Dweller can do in the wild on a camping trip. Next video will be them staging a nascar style race with the dweller and a competing trailer they sell. Show down in the Wasatch will be the title. Also one of thier Dweller videos shows how one can exceed thier gcwr and be out and proud about it. They let a lady buy a x22 and pull it home to CO with a four runner. She was told by one thier 19 year old employee s that they pull x22 s with a 4runner bo problem

 

[Obsessed2findARuggedHybid]

Doesn't appear to be any name brand or anything. Note the warning in the manual; not a heavy duty awning by any means.
View attachment 728975View attachment 728976

That being said, I've had awnings that were super heavy duty, but they're only as good as your tie-down job. Here's a pic of what the Graveler XT was supposed to look like set up, and what it looks like when a gust of wind comes before you get a chance to tie it down. That's another OBi product, and they got me replacement poles because I bent a few of them in that incident. I never made that mistake again.

View attachment 728978View attachment 728979

So no, it's not a heavy duty awning, but I've had it in 25 mph winds (which it didn't like and I rolled it in) and some rain (which it didn't mind much as long as I gave it some tilt to run the water off). Basically if you use your common sense and roll it up before it gets to crappy out, it should last a while.

So what your saying is this awining is a POS ?
That said I really have to commend you on starting this string and giving the most honest review I have ever seen buy an owner of a trailer. Kudos brother Gendlert!

 

[gendlert]

So what your saying is this awining is a POS ?
That said I really have to commend you on starting this string and giving the most honest review I have ever seen buy an owner of a trailer. Kudos brother Gendlert!

If you don't provide honest reviews, what's the point? I'm not selling them or making money on them. Just want to help inform people what they're getting into before they spend a huge pile of cash.

 

[WillySwan]

Next video will be them staging a nascar style race with the dweller and a competing trailer they sell. Show down in the Wasatch will be the title. Also one of thier Dweller videos shows how one can exceed thier gcwr and be out and proud about it. They let a lady buy a x22 and pull it home to CO with a four runner. She was told by one thier 19 year old employee s that they pull x22 s with a 4runner bo problem

I references this videos as they do demonstrate the independent suspension and the departure angles. I think this is pertinent to someone considering a D13 or D15.

I don't see how your dealer criticisms are adding value to this discussion topic.

 

[Obsessed2findARuggedHybid]

I references this videos as they do demonstrate the independent suspension and the departure angles. I think this is pertinent to someone considering a D13 or D15.

I don't see how your dealer criticisms are adding value to this discussion topic.

Somebody is on the Roamer coolaid

 

[WillySwan]

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.

 

[WillySwan]

The galley sink drain is another area that could certainly be improved on the Dweller 13. My D13 has an approximate 2-1/2 inch hole in the bottom panel of the sink/stove cabinet. When setting up camp, you need to pull a semi-rigid drain hose out of the hole and when you are finished with the galley, the hose must be pushed back into the hole before the galley can be closed. It is cumbersome at best.

I think this type of drain hose arrangement is common in pull-out galleys. My issue is that I invariably forget to pull out the hose when setting up the galley and when I used the sink I would fill the cabinet with drain water. When I did remember to pull out the drain hose, it always seemed to be pointing in the wrong direction.

My “fix” for this was to install a rigid elbow onto the end of the existing drain hose inside of the galley cabinet. I needed to fabricate a bracket so that the end of the elbow is flush with the bottom of the galley cabinet. If the elbow protrudes below the bottom of the cabinet, the cabinet will not close.

Again, I ran into the issue of the drain hose being of metric dimensions. I believe the drain hose is 25mm external diameter. The fitting I chose was a 1-inch polyethylene combination elbow (slip-hose/on pipe on one side and 1-inch female NPT on the other side). It was an extremely tight fit but I was able to install this fitting onto the end of the drain pipe. I then fabricated a bracket to fix this elbow inside the galley cabinet. This is what it looks like from below:

My new drain hose extension consists of a 1-inch NPT to garden hose adapter with a short section of garden hose. It now lives in the galley sink which reminds me to install it. If I forget to install it, at least the sink water will drain onto my shoe instead of into the interior of the galley cabinet.

 

[Obsessed2findARuggedHybid]

I references this videos as they do demonstrate the independent suspension and the departure angles. I think this is pertinent to someone considering a D13 or D15.

I don't see how your dealer criticisms are adding value to this discussion topic.

I will admit my criticism does not add as much as you and others with all the mods and reviews. Just pointing out that suspension and departure angles will be different when trailer and TV are loaded.

 

[FordGuy1]

beat up.
Somebody is on the Roamer coolaid

I like the videos from ROV, yes they are sales orientated, but you can still pick and choose when watching and clearly see how the trailer reacts in certain situations. You don't see many other trailers being beat up on video.

 

[gendlert]

My “fix” for this was to install a rigid elbow onto the end of the existing drain hose inside of the galley cabinet. I needed to fabricate a bracket so that the end of the elbow is flush with the bottom of the galley cabinet. If the elbow protrudes below the bottom of the cabinet, the cabinet will not close.

Does that not interfere with the open/close of the drawer under the sink?

 

[WillySwan]

Does that not interfere with the open/close of the drawer under the sink?

No it doesn’t. In the next couple of days I will pull out the drawer and try to get a picture which shows the drain hose routing.

 

[BernieMulcahy]

I've not made any significant mods yes, but just wanted to chime in as another Dweller13 owner. I purchased a few weeks ago in Eugene, OR. Camped in southern Oregon on the drive home to the Sacramento area. Going out again this weekend to the Las Padres national forest. There will be some off-roading (I believe very mild) involved.

A big thank you to "gendlert". I started by search for an off-road capable camper a few years ago and put in on hold until a few months ago. I started up the search again and came across his first post in this thread. It looked very interesting and a great review. A ton of internet research later, and now we have one.

We have a newer version that they started manufacturing in January 2021. The big difference is the gauge cluster is to the left as you enter, behind the couch, not in the front area. This opens up more storage area in the front of the camper. And the batteries are now under the couch instead of under the bed. The downside of this move is the freshwater tank valve is now under the bed.

I have made a few very small mods:

• Installed a bluetooth remote module for the Renogy solar charge controller. It was cheap and gives easier access to view the charge state.
• I'm also adding some small mesh nets to the inside of the cubbies (next to the bed) to help organize those areas. The wife currently hates them.
• Bought a new power cord for the refrigerator and changed the cigarette lighter end for an Anderson connecter. It is a much more positive connection.
• The orientation of the light switches were driving us crazy. Push in the bottom of the switch to turn on the lights. So I flipped them to match what we are used to in the US. Easy enough to do - but you need to pop off the switches themselves and not the switch covers to be able to able remove the switches.

So far just two issues -
1)The door handle light wasn't working. When I removed the handle to investigate there was a bunch of moisture in the bottom of the handle. A ramification of sitting outside in Oregon for a few months I suppose. Found an almost exact replacement light online, and some new material to use as a gasket for the door handle, and I'm good as new.
2)The second issue could have been much more of an issue. I started filling the rear water tank and noticed water below the camper. Stopped filling and investigated. The filler hose had come off of the fill opening, and water was going straight into the camper. I was able to get to the hose fitting from the interior cabinet just above the heater vents and reattach. No real damage done. But I'm going to be checking that fill hose before I fill up going forward. Its something that folks might want to look at.

I'm still have a challenge with my vehicle recognizing the trailer when I plug it in (LED lights). I've tried the resistor route, but no luck yet.

I really like the plumbing mod for the greywater tank drain. I'll definitely be doing that. The sink drain looks interesting too.

What tire pressure do you run? I have zero info for that.

 

[WillySwan]

What tire pressure do you run? I have zero info for that.

The "manufacturer recommended" tire pressure is listed on the Dweller's VIN sticker. With my D13 it is located on the backside of the drawbar cross-member. My VIN sticker says to inflate to a tire pressure of 80 PSI. 80 PSI is the maximum inflation pressure for the LT265/75R16-123E tires. My dealer's service manager suggested 70 PSI as a reasonable inflation.

I found a Toyo Tire load-inflation table which gives the load capacities for a given tire size & rating at various pressures. Tires are interchangeable between brands assuming you maintain the same size and load rating. If you believe that logic, then the Toyo Tire load-inflation table should be a reasonable guide regardless of tire brand. The Toyo guide states the following capacities for a LT265/75R16-123E tire:

• 80 PSI, 3415 lbs capacity
• 75 PSI, 3260 lbs capacity
• 70 PSI, 3105 lbs capacity
• 65 PSI, 3000 lbs capacity

The Dweller 13 Owner's Manual (such as it is) lists the GVWR as 5732 lbs. If you have 10% of that weight on the tongue, then there is about 2600 lbs on each tire (assuming even side-to-side balance) at maximum GVWR.

For me, 70-75 PSI seems reasonable, but that is just my opinion.

 

[WillySwan]

I did just confirm that the "GOODRIDE" tires do list the same MAXLOAD of 3415 lbs at 80 PSI cold.