Galileo

I honestly hadn’t expected the bleach soak to get them as clean as it did. I threw the Dawn dishwashing liquid in just for surfactant reasons. I figured I’d have to do the scrubbing again - but didn’t have to. I wonder if scrubbing them the first time (last year or so) had a residual effect. At any rate, the bleach + Dawn + water overnight definitely got the gaskets to damn-near new condition. Pleasantly surprised they came out as well as they did.

Pretty sure every production-made ball mount/receivers are gonna have at least a little “play”. If I watch carefully when raising the front Jack when hitching up, I can detect when the point of taking weight off of the TV changes to lifting the TV. Then again, with our combo, that movement is pretty slight and under less than ideal conditions (rain, dark, rushing) I can’t see it. The “LevelMate” device and app will let you judge the height to 1/4”. Especially useful if you use the “set hitch height” function.

I was really hoping that I’d find wires for both side’s porch and courtesy lights at the switch panel. Nuts.

My intent was to try leaving it off, but after seeing how badly the curb side of the trailer streaks, I’m thinking now that I will install the new seal I purchased. The problem - as I see it - is that even with the seal removed, the awning creates a narrow gap that does catch tree debris. These are held here and create the streaks. The street side - in our case with no awning - has nothing to slow down the flow of water or trap debris, so everything washes right off. I was (un) pleasantly surprised to discover that after I removed the seal, cleaned off the whole roof and around the awning brackets, and cleaned and buffed away the streaks - it rained that night - bringing down tree litter - and re-streaked the curb side even worse than it was before!

This one looks pretty close if not the exact one. ITC -is- one of the suppliers Oliver uses. I purchased table pedestal caps from them, as well as two additional pedestal mounts. I figured I could use them to make a base for the table to use it outside. (Never did) Since people are talking about the porch lights - those things are DAMN bright! I’d like to dim them or even install additional switches to enable me to turn on just one or two of them to avoid ruining everyone’s night vision. (Same with the killer-bright courtesy lights.) guess I’ll check that link to see if it says they’re dimmable or not. (Listing says they are dimmable. Guess that’s a new project.)

OK folks, (TLDR - Stained window seals? Soak overnight in Dawn & Bleach water.) Now that I’ve got that whiny rant out of my system, I’ve come up with a solution that saves $100 and gives me some satisfaction. I had pulled the window seals out of all four windows last season or so, scrubbed them with a toothbrush and Comet, gave them an hour soak in bleach water, and got them somewhat clean. I even moved two of them to opposite side of the trailer so I could install them “upside down” so that the more visible part was clean. They hadn’t come completely clean, but were a lot less unsightly. As I mentioned before, because I scrubbed (abraded) them, I figured they wouldn’t come as clean a second time. I’m thrilled to report that I was wrong! I pulled them off again yesterday. Coiled them up in the bottom of a plastic bucket. I put a cup of household bleach and a generous squirt of Dawn dishwashing liquid, and sprayed about a gallon of water in the bucket. I let them soak overnight. This morning I was pleasantly surprised to find that they came even cleaner than the first time! There’s just a mere hind of a shadow of the old stain on just one small part of one seal. I would pronounce (nearly) “as good as new”! I plan to coat/seal them with the same treatment I’ve used in the nose of the trailer to make bugs release easier. So - for little more sweat equity than it would take to cut and install new ones - and $100 less - I have window seals I’m quite happy with.

Yes - finger slipped and spellcheck liked cooking. I just noticed that while-installing them the last time, that it’s pretty easy to stretch it as you install it. That could probably be enough to cause the gap as the material ages.

Yes, black seems to be the way to avoid the unsightly black mildew - or whatever it is. They’ll still get dirty of course, it just won’t be so obvious. I hadn’t thought about cooling (previously “cooking” oops!) the new seal material first. I was figuring that the stuff doesn’t really shrink all that much, it more likely gets stretched as it’s being installed. I was planning on kinda “compressing” it as I install it. Mine had those 3/4”-1” gaps, but I just made sure they were at the top when I cleaned and reinstalled them. I don’t think they really do anything at the top. They just keep most dirt and junk out of the bottom of the track.

(TLDR: this entry is a rant that’s not worth the time to read. Just me whining. You have been warned!) I knew I’d find the source for this material here! I’m more than a bit disappointed that the stuff costs $5.17 per foot plus shipping - especially when the material is clearly not very good at resisting stains - and apparently shrinks - though that could be an installation error. Kind of “our product is terrible, but we have you over a barrel. Hah!” It’s not that $100 is a big deal in the grand scheme of things - just that it’s - for lack of a better phrase - a cheap cash-grab. It’s like they’re thumbing their nose at folks who have their windows having to spend $100 every couple of years to keep their windows looking nice. Last year, I removed the seals, scrubbed them with a couple of different cleaners and a toothbrush. That got off most of the stains. Then I took them for a little soak in a strong bleach water solution for about an hour. That got them virtually new-looking again. Of course, that may well have been more than $100 worth of my time and labor. That, and I’ll bet that the seals won’t come that clean a second time. So - now that I’ve ranted and whined about having to fork over $100 - every couple of years - I’m gonna go out, pull the seals off the windows - again, throw them in a bucket of bleach water, and scrub them in the morning. Then, I’ll look for some way to coat or seal them so they don’t do this again.

If you have the property, that’s a great option. Since we’re all but full-time, we have no property. We opted for indoor storage to keep not only the sun and birds, but the millions of mud-home-building insects out of every nook and cranny. Pricey - but worth the cost!

Looking good! Aside from the dirty back end, it looks great. We have an older (much older) sailboat that has been sitting in the Louisiana sun for 25+ years and the deck is very pasty/chalky. The gelcoat has worn completely away in a few places, but when it’s aggressively cleaned it regains a good bit of gloss. No idea how thick (or consistent) the gelcoat is on the Ollie, but I would imagine it could take several years of chalking and cutting before you’d run out of surface that would polish out. I’ve had several pressure washers. Judiciously used, they can be real time-savers. That said, they just plain don’t get ALL the dirt off. You need a sponge or rag or washing mitt to get down to the actual surface - even if you’re not trying to remove tree sap, bugs, or bird droppings. That’s takes good old, US made elbow grease!

Could be. The forces I’m talking about would - I imagine - prevent much up-and-down movement, but might only make side-to-side movement a little less easy to make because of the greatly increased friction between the ball carrier and receiver. I would also guess that it has a lot to do with how much play or “slop” there is between the receiver and ball mount/carrier. With an older truck/receiver that’s seen a lot of towing - likely with non WD hitches that would move around more and create wear - I guess that clearance could open up. Though it’s really kinda hard to tell with a newer, well-insulated truck like our 2025 Sierra Denali (even with the radio off) the only sound I’ve ever heard from the hitch is an occasional, one-time “clunk” as the freshly tensioned WD system “settles in” when I first move the TV/RV combination. Like the ball and coupler figure out “OK - here’s where I’m gonna be for the next 300 miles. Carry on!” Once - before I had figured out how tight to make those Andersen WD chains, I would get a clunk when braking to a hard stop. That hasn’t happened since I ate my Wheaties and got those chains tight. If anything, I with there was a way to adjust the “pitch” of the Andersen WD assembly. Looking at it when coupled and adjusted, it seems the whale tail is higher at the rear edge than the front. But, lacking such a pitch adjustment, the only way to change that would be to lower the rear of the receiver - or the whole rear of the truck. Next time I hitch it up I’ll take a picture and post it to see if others see the same thing.

If I’m picturing it correctly, you’d have upward force at the aft end of the receiver, and downward force at the forward end of the “ball carrier” (ball mount) well inside the receiver. It’s more of a “torque” than just an upward force. The WD hitch “lifts” the back of the vehicle as its trying to force the front of the vehicle down. That’s quite a bit of force and I would think that between those contact points - and the pin holding those two parts together - it would immobilize movement in all but the sloppiest fits between receiver and ball carrier. I guess if you’re going over some horrendous bumps it could unload that assembly enough to move - but I think all the other noises you’d hear (stuff flying around your truck cab, passengers screaming, etc) you’d hardly notice noise from your hitch.

I’m guessing that a ceramic coating would have either prevented the streaks, or made them easy to wipe away. Guessing also that my waxing job or wax product isn’t cutting the mustard.

I cleaned the top of the trailer just this past weekend, so not sure what would be running down onto the side. The street side of the trailer actually looks quite a bit better. Not pristine, but not as dramatic as this. The marks aren’t coming off with just “soap” so I guess I’m gonna have to use something with some polishing capabilities. It’s strange that it looks worse after it’s been cleaned. That makes zero sense.