How to seal Doors???

bee

Observer
I am building a camper from scratch and I am trying to figure out how to seal the doors. I will have a standard sized entrance and a toy hauler style rear gate. The best selection of seals I can find are at mcmaster. Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of seal to use, and where to buy? Maybe some tips on what not to do?

Wiper seals vs compression seals???

Frankly I can't find any information out there :(
 

NeverEnough

Adventurer
Another option is buy a complete door- jam and door. There are numerous RV "wholesale to public" like Pellandant that sell components, as well as seals. The ramp door will probably do best with compression seals.
 

bee

Observer
Thanks for the info, I now know that D style compression seals are designed for 25-50% compression range. I was having hell of a time finding out that sort of thing. Please keep the info coming if you have any.

NeverEnough, buying a pre-made door would be way to easy. I am going for higher R value and hopefully higher quality then the standard RV door.
 

NeverEnough

Adventurer
NeverEnough, buying a pre-made door would be way to easy. I am going for higher R value and hopefully higher quality then the standard RV door.

I made my own doors for the same reasons, but it was the hardest part of my build from a craftsmanship perspective. The trick to a good seal is having 2-3 seals work in concert to create a vacuum. My doors used honey-comb core slabs with 5058 aluminum topskin, doubled on the edges for the flange. I had to make the jamb by fabbing my own "z" channel, also from 5058. The same "z" channel was used around the door slab. I used continuous stainless piano hinges for the entire door length and TriMark 3-point latches. My dimensions were calculated using the seal manufacturer's compression specs. Still, it took hours to tune the latching hardware to get the doors to work properly. Drip rails above all doors/hatches help, but I haven't bothered on my camper yet.

I'm happy with what I ended up with, but I second-guessed my approach a hundred times because it took so friggin long, and time=money+enjoyment. Good luck!
 

bee

Observer
Thanks for the info. Does anyone have pictures or can point me in the direction of examples of double sealed doors, preferably compression and wipe in conjunction.
 

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