Please, your thoughts on Ill-fated Pod trip

Dry camping in NW Montana, we were surprised by snow and a couple of unexpected below-freezing nights and one day of high temp 31 degrees.  Tried to keep heat in Pod >50 degrees, but during 2nd cold night temp dropped to 24 degrees and in the morning water was frozen.  Checked everything once I was home running water through everything including hot water tank and all seems to be well.  My friends Casita was fine, but there is carpet on everything including walls and ceiling.  I have been disappointed in the apparent lack of insulation in my pod.  So lesson learned--my one and only "winter camping" experience.

I have close to 3400 miles on my Pod--11 total trips over 2 summers.  On the way home from above trip, I glanced out the rearview mirror and noticed trailer wheel seemed to be tilted out.  Coming upon a turnout along the highway, my friend following me came over the walkie talkie saying smoke was coming from my wheel, then flames.  20 miles from nearest (little) town, I unhooked, drove back to Eureka and found a tire shop.  Long story short--I ended up having a complete brake repair by the side of the road.  The wheel bearing was completely gone, the brake shoes had grooves worn in them, the spindle had been chewed up and fortunately the guy was able to file it smooth enough to fit whatever had to fit over it.  He checked the lug nuts and they were tight so that wasn't the problem.  He said it was way too early in its life for this to be happening and thinks something wasn't right from the factory.  He took the other tire off and checked that and it was fine.

I will be taking the trailer to the dealer next week to have them look at it again and make sure all is well. Next spring I'll be going on a 4000-5000 mile trip to the Southwest.  Does the above experience mean I'll need to have my wheel bearings checked mid-trip?  Would appreciate any and all thoughts on the above problems, especially regarding the wheel.

It's certainly not a normal thing that happened with your wheel bearing.  I've watched a lot of owners travel cross country in one season and not have any dire issues like that.

Its odd you had a problem keeping the inside of the pod warm.  I've camped down to 10 F, two different winters, and kept my pod warm with a small space heater set on low.  Certainly the LPG heater can keep it comfortable w/o any effort.  Which model pod do you have?  If its a slide out model its possible the seal isn't right which is letting in a lot of cold air.

Originally posted by Podster Hey TT, what temperatures do your hubs run at?

I wanna say around 100°F, or a little more maybe.  I pay less attention to the temp than the difference between the hubs.  They are usually within 10° of each other.

TT

And thank you all for the tip on the laser temp thermometer and checking brakes.  I hate being a girl about this, but can someone send pictures of how/where to check the temps using a laser gun?     I suspect I'm not the only one who needs this info. I can see this is something I need to worry about during every trip.