Winter camping - any advice?

I just purchased an RPOD from an neighbor and have been investigating ways to have a 4-season camper.  There are a few design flaws in the RPOD in what otherwise would have been a very good 4 season camper.  My goal is to be able to take it skiing for 3-4 days in the east coast, where the temps get easily into the low 20s-10s.  That means no shore power mostly and recharging the batteries from a generator.

Hi Stephen--yes these are good points.  We did have the heat pads running while we were driving to Taos Friday night and battery voltage never dropped, so I'm assuming the tow vehicle output was enough to keep up with it.  Nothing was frozen when we got there, but may not have had enough time to freeze.  It wasn't until we spent the night that the shower/toilet lines froze.  We tried turning the heater inside up at night, but those lines to shower and toilet that run through the floor were still frozen the next morning.  Sink water and fresh tank never froze and the heat tape worked to keep the exposed supply line flowing.

We just went up to Taos Ski Valley from Dallas for the long weekend to go skiing in our 2016 176 Rpod.  I wanted to have access to water and shower so I put heating pads on the three tanks, 12V self-regulating heat tape on the exposed fresh water line from tank and wrapped in the pipe insulation with aluminum tape going on before and after.  I also put the heat tape around the grey water valve.  Last weekend it was subzero, around -6 at night in the ski valley but was warming up to near freezing during the day.  The only trouble we had was that in the morning each day the hot and cold water to the shower as well as the toilet water was frozen.  We left the electric heater on high all day (took a generator with us) and when we got back the lines were no longer frozen.  The lines are not exposed but run through the floor.  So I suspect that just being adjacent the bottom layer of the floor was enough to freeze the lines at these temps.  Not sure what can be done about that except maybe putting insulation under the Rpod or adding a skirt?  The electric heater would keep up with keeping the RV warm inside, even too warm.  We didn't add any extra insulation anywhere.

Thanks for the great advice all, I'm looking forward to the mountains as always!

yodt

I was in the Rio Grande outside taos last march in our 182g twice.  What elevation will you be camping at?  I had no problems and like Mcarter said, it takes a long time to freeze that water and most of the fresh water plumbing is somewhat enclosed anyway.  I would fill up the fresh water tank and use it.  The heat from the ground will help provide some heat to the bottom of the pod and the furnace takes care of the inside.  you can leave a small drip as well and use the vault toilets if you have them.