Galileo

I thought using the stabilizer jacks to lift the trailer - or even take much weight off the springs - was strongly advised against - if not outright “forbidden”. At least that’s what we were told at our delivery orientation. Along those lines, I’ve even noticed that even running the rear stabilizer jacks more than a split second after they start taking the weight of the trailer twists the frame enough to make the screen door bind in the frame.

After upgrading my grease gun to a “LockNLube Professional Series”, I discovered I couldn’t sneak the coupler behind the tires to get to some of the fittings, so I figured it was time to pull the wheels off to get to them. While I was at it, I intended to try the “unloading the suspension” to get some of the Zerk fitting unwilling to accept grease to submit. Then again, taking the wheels off without unloading the suspension would be more fun than I was up for. Anyway, a lot of realizations in what should have been a fairly straightforward operation: First off, getting a floor jack under the best lifting points on the axles isn’t very easy. That’s something an owner would have to do just to change a tire. What kind of jacks are people out there using? Related to the above, the marked lifting points on the frame require a jack that has pretty high lifting ability. So again, best kind of jack? (I currently have an AC “Racing Jack” - which is fine for most vehicle, easier than a hydraulic bottle jack, and a lot less effort than the mechanical jack that comes with your average TV.) I decided to rotate the tires - front to rear only - since I was gonna have them off. Seemed prudent. I had been naively been trusting the 120 foot-pound torque specs from the Oliver owners manual. I’d been re-torquing them periodically as advised by the manual. No issues until now. This was the first time I had a wheel off. So it’s the first time I’ve actually tightened a lug nut that wasn’t already tight. On the right side - aside from struggling to jack the beast up - everything went fine. However - on the left side - when trying to torque the lug nuts, I found that a couple of them didn’t seem to tighten. They didn’t feel stripped, just wouldn’t tighten. My wild guess is that the studs are pressed in, but don’t have splines to keep them from spinning - which would be unlike every other wheel stud I’ve replaced. (I had even snapped a couple off back in the old days when I tried to remove a lug nut on a ‘64 Dodge that had left hand threads on one side of the vehicle.) Once I searched here and found that 120ft/lbs is likely too high, I tried again at 100ft/lbs and I was able to torque them to that spec. (Kinda like that 80psi on the tires….) So does anyone know if the studs are not splined? Im sure I’ll have more questions as time goes by…

I know this is an old thread, but I needed to get information on lug nuts and wheel studs, and, thought I would offer John & Debbie an option I haven’t heard mentioned yet. Check with your friendly, local Snap-On tool dealer. They typically drive around in big truck full of cool (expensive) tools and make frequent stops at car dealerships and independent auto repair shops. They often have a torque wrench tester/calibration checker on their truck. I have Snap-On torque wrenches and had mine checked by my dealer last summer. They tested within tolerance. Mine are more like 40 years old - but have been treated pretty nicely. (Kept in cases, NOT dropped in concrete!) I imagine of you ask nicely, your local Snap-On guy will test your wrench regardless of who made it. They’d probably do it for the goodwill and hoping to snag a new customer. The real reason for my digging up this thread in in the next post.

As you point out - there is the entertainment value… Luckily, that bonehead managed to miss you. I typically just manage to get videos of idiots taking freeway exits from two lanes over, or blatantly blowing through red lights. OTOH - we did catch a bear loping across the interstate in Wyoming.

Yep - the challenge was finding a piece of material the right size and shape - made out of a material that the tape would stick to. Since I don’t have any kind of “shop” to work in, I’ve been roaming the aisles at the hardware store hoping to find something. So far, the only one I’ve found was too “greasy” to hold the tape. The quest continues…

I’d considered that - but with the Rove dashcam, the only surface on the camera would be the bezel around the lens. I’m not sure that’s enough contact area to assure it would stay in place. Especially since we tend to be in “hot” areas that cause even tough 3M “VHB” tape. That, and I’d have to create an open circle of tape to go around the lens. (in case I wasn’t being clear - I wanted to mount a cam to the rear window of the P/U facing to the rear, and one on the rear window if the Oliver. Being vertical, the mounts supplied with the camera don’t provide enough clearance to aim the camera level to the rear.)

We have a Rove R2-4K dashcam. Though by default, it plugs into a “cigarette lighter” outlet, our new TV doesn’t have one. Though the cable supplied with the unit will also plug into a USB-C receptacle - which our new TV has, I decided to buy the “hard wire” kit which lets you tap into your TV’s fuse block. I bought 2 additional units to add a rear-facing dashcam to the TV, and one for the rear window of the Ollie. A problem I have yet to solve is that the supplied mounts - both suction cup and adhesive mount - won’t work on a vertical window like the rear of a Pickup truck, or the Oliver. Has anybody found a way to mount a cam on a vertical glass?? I think I could just use a spacer of an inch or so, but curious if someone has already invented this wheel. (Apparently Rove hasn’t.) TIA, V

Hi all, Shopping for insurance (again) and trying to find out who the “best” companies are. We currently use GEICO for both TV and our Oliver. Maybe I’m just still living in the 80’s, but insurance has gotten rather pricey! I have to admit to not having read every jot and tittle of our policy - but you can be sure I will now! I hit a bit of a rude surprise when I found out “yacht” (Catalina 30 sailboat) needed a rudder and that our “cash value” policy through GEICO (Boat US) is paying for the replacement of the rudder - depreciated by its age. So they’re only going to pay 20% of the replacement cost of the rudder and other parts that are replaced. (Getting rid of the boat anyway - ready for that “other happiest day of a boat owner’s life”) Anyway, suggestions? Experiences? Geico has been great with our previous TV that got hit while parked when it was 6 months old. You never get it “all” back, but they didn’t squawk at the estimates, let us use our dealer, and paid instantly. I’m leery after the boat experience that they may not be as good should we ever file a claim for the trailer. That, and I think I owe it to myself to shop around since I’m thinking I’m paying too much. (And who isn’t?!)

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.

Well Ollie folks, I got tired of the brown trickles that were coming down over the fridge vent panels and rearward edge of the door from where the rubber seal had detached from the camper body and leaked the brown water from behind the awning. I purchased a new 20’ seal through Amazon - looks like the same exact thing. Pulled the old one off yesterday. Peeled and “rolled” off 99.5% of the old double-sided tape that held it on. (Got a blister on my fingertip from the technique I found to be effective. And then, took my soapy water and assorted brushes to clean the residue an dirt from the former dam created. It came cleaner than I expected. No staining from crud that had built up. All that remains are a few small traces of adhesive that I planned to attack with 79% isopropyl alcohol today. ”Today” decides it’s gonna be a rain day. Bummer. Went outside to do some unrelated chores and was surprised/horrified by what I saw. Multicolor streaks down the side of the trailer! Really surprising as there was really nothing left to run down the side. That, and I had rinsed the whole area and whole side of the camper yesterday. This sucker was CLEAN yesterday and there was no crud left to drip down the side. There was a speck or two of leaf/tree litter, but no streaks of stains or anything. The masks don’t easily wipe or rub off. I am under some trees right now. I’m probably gonna have to use something with a little polishing ability to get it off. Anybody else seen this appear on an otherwise clean camper during/after a rain? I typically use blue Coral cad wash to do regular washing. Though I haven’t used it on the rest of the trailer, I’m using a product on the bug-prone “nose” of the trailer (and front of my TV) that is recommended to make bugs less likely to stick. That stuff seems to work. Im gonna try some StarBrite and Maguires wash and cleaner/wax products to attack these new stripes. Any other suggestions? BTW - I had decided to pass on installing the new rubber seal - but if this is what I have to look forward to - I’ll likely reverse that decision.

Looks like what’s in my basket as of yesterday afternoon!