Update:
The day before Thanksgiving I left a phone message and sent an email to the parts contact at Challenger Door. She was apparently out for the holiday and replied by email today. She asked how much I needed and said they have a 25-foot minimum and the cost is $1 per foot... but didn't mention whether there's a shipping charge or provide any other info.
I called her after reading that email and asked a few questions:
(1) Did she recommend the seal as a possible solution or a known solution? She says its a possible solution. She had taken the problem to the tech support staff when I first wrote and they said that's what they would use if they were replacing the bulb seal.
(2) Does Challenger make the seal? No, it's a common RV industry product.
(3) Do you know who the manufacturer is? No. The only clue is a parts cross reference JR109H3 (there may be hyphens in there). I was unable to find anything like that on the web (but could order it from Challenger).
(4) Do you know which adhesive the seal has on it? She found something saying the adhesive is H3. (which fits with the cross-reference number she had). (note: I asked this question because I see 109-profile D-seals at Trim-Lok, for example, can be bought with no adhesive, with 'HT' adhesive, or with 'BT' adhesive.
(5) What is the shipping cost? She will submit my address info to the shipping department for a quote but she thinks it will be about $10.
So, where are we?
It's not certain the recommendation of a 109 profile D-seal is a good one but it's a probably worth a try, particularly if your seal is very bad. The width of almost 5/8" seems like it's kind of wide but appears to fit. It's difficult to tell how the EPDM material of the seal would handle the slot-extrusion we no longer use when switching from the bulb seal to a glue-on D-seal.
Another important consideration is the adhesive. If you buy the JR109H3 seal from Challenger, you get an H3 adhesive, which is rubber-based. If you buy Trim-Lok's X109HT seal, you get a standard pressure-sensitive (acrylic) adhesive (I believe this is an 'H2' adhesive). And if you buy Trim-Lok's X109BT, you get 3M's Bonded Tape adhesive.
This Trim-Lok Rubber Seal video is useful for understanding differences in the HT and BT adhesives as well as preparation steps for installation.
-Old Crow
PS- I also called All Terrain Campers today. They don't have the bulb-seal stock either. They also said the door on my 2001 may be a Dexter. I'll give them a try too.
