Teresa - You did a lot better with your first snow-camp than I did with mine. We were caught by a surprise blizzard in Amish country, and completely unprepared mentally for what we would experience. Funny now - not so funny then.
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It got very cold.. high of 30's during the day... the furnace worked good for the front end of the TM.. but we had to also use a little extra one to heat up other areas.. and to also save some propane.
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Yup, an electric heater is a great thing for the back of the TM. We didn't happen to have one (but you bet we do now!) We did discover that if you close the privacy curtain, the back bed area will get REALLY cold, but if you leave it open, it is at least bearable.
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With the heaters we got lots of consendation with turned into ice on the inside of the trailer's windows - mostly in the back where the bed is located.
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The condensation isn't from the heaters. It is actually from people breathing. And from cooking, I suppose. The electric heaters don't produce any water, and although the propane furnace produces a lot of water vapor, it is vented outside, so the water doesn't get into the TM. Of course, if you used a non-vented propane catalytic heater inside, you get a lot of water vapor from it. Anyway, the answer is to crack a vent or open a window just a bit, and allow some of the moisture-laden air to escape. You hate to let the warm air out, but the alternative is all the condensation/ice you describe.
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None of the pipes froze or our fresh water.
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TM promises that no pipes or tanks will actually break, even if they do freeze. And in my experience, they are right, with one exception. If you have an outside shower, and if you didn't remove the shower head and drain the hose, then it froze and probably broke. Mine did. And you won't discover it until your first trip in warm weather, when it will spray water all over the inside of the little compartment, and cascade down the outside of the TM ... and inside on the bathroom floor. Check it before your next trip.
The fact that the water tank and the pump are in the heated interior is a great thing - it means that they don't freeze, and you continue to have running water. Of course, if you had had water or sewer hookups, those hoses would have frozen. When my sewer hose froze, I picked it up - who knows why - and it instantly broke like a dry twig. Never did THAT again!
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Camping was great but leaving was very hard.. we had to defrost all of moving parts before we could lower the TM and get all 3 feet of snow off of our roof..
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The fact that snow built up is a testament to the insulation in the TM roof. I guess that's an advantage, right? At least until you have to shovel ...
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Other things we learned:
1-fold up your steps.. very hard to get the ice and snow off of them
2-cover the hitch area.. so it doesn't get lots of ice on it
3-if it does start to snow... get the snow off the top everyday..don't let it build up!
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All good ideas. Thanks! And the one I would add, based on my own experience, is "Bring an electric hair dryer and an extension cord! You can thaw out anything if you have one."
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Considering the storm we were in.. the TM did great..
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Yup! Isn't it nice? In my case it was the owner that didn't do so good.
Bill