Brush Seal on a Locker Door

 

On the Eriba caravans I've owned, there is a soft brush type 'seal' around the gas locker and entrance doors. I say 'seal' but they are probably more of a draught excluder than a seal and in the case of my 2008 Triton, it bearly fills the gap between the actual door and the frame.

One thing I have noticed is that often the brush along the base of the door absorbs water after towing or rain and can take ages to dry out. I've routinely dry the brush with a rag when I'm cleaning the van.

On my recently acquired Triton, I noticed that the brush had been removed along the entire bottom of the locker door, probably an attempt to avoid this absorption problem. Sounds a good idea, but unfortunately this meant that the channel for the brush snags very slightly on the frame, making the opening a bit of a faff. On all the other Eriba caravans I've had, there has definitely been a seal around the entire door, so to save the snagging, I set about finding a length of the brush/seal.

After ordering some through the auction site, I received a 1m length of 'Small Brush Seal', Hymer Part No.315281. It's 11mm across the plastic base, and 10mm high. It is a perfect match.

Next issue was the fitting of the missing section. There are no access slots in the channel, so I pulled the existing brush round the channel so the gap was at the top of the door, the missing section being about 80cm.

Fitting was a case of placing one side of the base in the channel, then pressing down on the other side with a blunt edge (I used closed scissors) and the brush pops in. It was a very nice fit.

The existing brush on the left, where it butts with the new brush.

The finished job looks good and the joins are not noticeable at all.

And now there is an entire brush around the door, and the locker door opens and closes smoothly. 

I am now considering doing the entire entrance door to the van, as the existing brush is very flat and quite 'tough' in places.

The seal costs around £10 per metre.