The mast extended and retracted very well with no weight on it, but now it struggles with weight of the omni and Yagi antennas combined with uncoiling the attached lead wires.

I think part of the reason is the Yagi has moved the center of mass too far off center, which is causing more friction with where the mast goes through the RV valence.

I also think I cut my hose a little bit short.  It was a tradeoff.  On the short side gave me more retraction force.

I think I'm first going to try some lube before I make any other changes.

The 5-3 way valve I have also leaks like a sieve, so it hasn't liked to stay up anyway.  From what I read, I believe that is just a matter of tightening up the screws on it.  

We are still parked in the city though, so there has been basically no need for this yet.  In fact we can point the Yagi pretty much any direction and still have be at -60dBm.