Aircraft style door seems drafty

[John in Santa Cruz]

My 2014 E21, it's a mid 40s night, I have the heater set for 63F, and I'm noticing a strong draft coming from the door... I think my aircraft style door isn't sealing well, like it's warped or something?

[Iowa Dave]

We found that the seal begins to no longer “rebound” when the door is opened after a few years. Reace pointed this out to us when we were at the factory one time. The solution was to insert a length of 1/8 inch round foam backer rod like you would use when caulking a large crack. This was accomplished by manually “peeling” the edge of the door seal back with my hands while my wife Rita pushed in the rope rod under the seal. We did not use any adhesive. It’s seemed to stay in place pretty well and hasn’t compressed too badly. I guess when it does we will pull it out to replace. Living in a log home, we are past masters of caulking staining and cold air control.
Pretty inexpensive treatment that can’t hurt, should help.
Iowa Dave

[skiman]

I have noticed the gaps seem to vary with order of cranking down stabilizer jacks and the amount of elbow grease applied. I have shimmed the gasket to improve over the years. The original is splitting at the bottom, but the new one I ordered from Escape seems a bit questionable. I think I am going to use some black silicone to try to repair it first.

[Great Eggstrications]

With trailer in full sunlight with lights off and curtains down, from inside the trailer could see a few sections of maybe 1/32" gaps. Tore off a few narrow strips of duct tape and applied to seal as/where needed, then covered with a strip of black electrical tape. Still doing ok after a couple of years.

[Kingfish]

Do we really want a completely air tight trailer. I find I always need a little ventilation to mitigate condensation. Usually have bathroom fan on or ceiling fan on very low regardless of temp. It has to pull air in from somewhere.

[occer]

Originally Posted by Kingfish

Do we really want a completely air tight trailer. I find I always need a little ventilation to mitigate condensation. Usually have bathroom fan on or ceiling fan on very low regardless of temp. It has to pull air in from somewhere.

That’s true the fan works better with a little ventilation. I prefer a window creaked open with a screen so no mosquitoes or other outdoor stuff comes in.

[TTMartin]

Originally Posted by Kingfish

Do we really want a completely air tight trailer. I find I always need a little ventilation to mitigate condensation. Usually have bathroom fan on or ceiling fan on very low regardless of temp. It has to pull air in from somewhere.

While I don't keep the bathroom fan on. I do keep the bathroom vent open when parked if it is above freezing.

My MaxxAir Fan is always on, either open or closed in 'ceiling fan mode'.

[Mike G]

When I bought my 2012 last year I could see considerable gaps around the door's weather strip. I had a roll of D shaped weather strip on hand, about 1/2" x 1/2", so I simply adhered some of it right onto the existing weather strip (after cleaning it) in the areas where I saw gaps. More than a year later, it's working fine. Took hardly any time at all.


No way is my trailer airtight anyway. A strong cold wind on the driver's side will push considerable amounts of cold air through the furnace and around the fridge. Fortunately that hasn't happened too often... a combo of chance, weather, and my camping habits (if it's going to be below 40 degrees and a strong wind, I probably stayed home!).

[Nindy]

I have a spot on my door where the dogs have scratched the weather strip and daylight shows through. I asked Escape if I could buy some replacement from them. They sent me weather stripping that in no way matched what was used in 2015. I asked again, they apologized and sent me a different one that in no way was the same. I asked again and got something close that I haven't tried to use yet. I just don't worry about it.

[John in Santa Cruz]

sounds like they've used several different sorts of weather stripping over the years

to be fair, my door seems to seal ok if the fan is in 'out' mode and all the windows are closed, it sucks the door in tight.

when the fan is in 'in' mode, blowing down, the door ventilates under the positive pressure, mostly around the bottom, that's good... but if the fan is off and closed, I feel a distinct cold draft around the door when its cold out, and the heater is on, .