01 What makes it unique
The 33RL is the top of the Alpha Wolf line, and like the 26DBH it is one of two plans Forest River documents in full. The factory floorplan record describes three slideouts and one entry, with outside storage, 11-foot and 14-foot awnings, a solid-step entry, an outside kitchen with a refrigerator and ice maker, and a rear accessory hitch. The interior is documented front to back: a front sun bench with an overhead cabinet and wardrobes on each side, an off-door-side king bed slideout, a wardrobe with washer/dryer prep and a door-side dresser; an off-door-side full bathroom with a medicine cabinet; the entry door; a kitchen counter with overhead cabinet and microwave; and rear living.
A king bed on a slide, a sun bench at the front window and washer/dryer prep are fifth-wheel features, and Forest River says so directly — its copy calls this a popular rear-living fifth-wheel design rendered as a lightweight travel trailer. For a couple living aboard for weeks rather than weekends, the laundry provision and the king bed are the two things that usually force a move up to a fifth wheel.
It is the heaviest Alpha Wolf: 8,833 pounds dry against a published 11,395-pound GVWR, leaving 2,562 pounds of cargo with a 1,195-pound dry tongue, at 39 feet 3 inches long and 11 feet 4 inches tall. That height is worth noting on its own — it is the tallest plan in the line, and low clearances become a route-planning question. Tanks are 81 fresh, 70 grey, 35 black. The build is line-standard laminated fiberglass over block foam on a drop frame with the Super Truss roof, lifetime PVC membrane, armored heated underbelly, tankless water heater, four power stabilizer jacks and the Juice Pack solar package.
02 Full specifications
Dimensions
- Exterior length
- 39' 3"
- Exterior height
- 11' 4"
- Exterior width
- 96"
Weights
- Dry / unit base weight (UVW)
- 8,833 lbs
- GVWR (max loaded)
- 11,395 lbs
- Net cargo / payload (CCC)
- 2,562 lbs
- Dry tongue (hitch) weight
- 1,195 lbs
Capacities
- Fresh water
- 81 gal
- Grey water
- 70 gal
- Black water
- 35 gal
- Refrigerator
- 10 cu ft 12-volt
Construction
- Sidewalls
- Laminated fiberglass over block-foam insulation
- Chassis
- Drop-frame design · "SuperStore" basement storage
- Roof
- 1x engineered wood "Super Truss" structure w/ 3/8" decking · PVC membrane, lifetime warranty
- Floor
- 5/8" tongue-and-groove plywood decking
- Underbelly
- Armored tank enclosure w/ forced-air heat · 12V heat pads on all holding tanks
- Skirt
- "ToughBend" rigid metal design
Running gear
- Hitch
- Bumper Pull (weight-distribution recommended)
- Axles
- Not published by Forest River
- Tires
- Not published by Forest River
- Jacks
- Power tongue jack · four power stabilizer jacks
- Solar
- Juice Pack — 100W panel, battery, disconnect, voltmeter, 30A charger
Galley & systems
- Refrigerator
- 10 cu ft 12-volt
- A/C
- 1x 15,000 BTU
- Water heater
- On-demand tankless
- Sink
- Workstation farm-style w/ cup washer
- Kitchen
- Oven and microwave · hidden or walk-in pantry by plan
Sleeping & layout
- Sleeps
- Not published by Forest River
- Slides
- 3
- Entries
- 1
- Awnings
- 2 (11' & 14')
- Factory layout
- front sun bench with overhead cabinet, wardrobes on each side, off-door side king bed slideout, and wardrobe with washer/dryer prep, and door side dresser; off-door side full bathroom with medicine cabinet; entry door; kitchen counter with overhead cabinet, microwave, and hutch along inner wall; off-door side slideout with 12V refrigerator, kitchen counter with cooktop, overhead cabinet, pantry, a
Verified specs, drawn to scale
Original graphics built from this floorplan’s own verified figures.
Loaded weight budget
Size, drawn to scale
Holding tanks
These graphics are generated from the same verified record that builds the table above, and are published under this site’s own licence — nothing here is traced from, or derived from, a manufacturer drawing or photo. Where a figure is not published for this plan, the graphic that would need it is omitted rather than estimated. The full record is in the published dataset.
03 The Alpha Wolf floorplan family
Alpha Wolf is the laminated-fiberglass tier of Forest River's Cherokee travel-trailer family — a construction step above the metal-sided Grey Wolf and Wolf Den on the same drop-frame half-ton bumper-pull architecture, and a cross-shop against Forest River's own Salem / Wildwood, Jayco's Jay Flight, Keystone's Passport and Coachmen's Catalina. Eleven floorplans are published for 2026.
| Floorplan | Nominal | Sleeps | Notable | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21RB | 25' 6" | 5,578 | 7,665 | Published specifications only |
| 22SW | 27' 0" | 5,513 | 7,735 | Front bedroom and rear bathroom · theatre seating |
| 24TRUNK | 30' 9" | 6,403 | 7,945 | Published specifications only |
| 25RB | 31' 1" | 6,581 | 7,910 | Front bedroom and rear bathroom |
| 26DBH | 32' 8" | 6,625 | 7,955 | Bunk beds and front bedroom · dual entry |
| 26RL | 34' 6" | 7,258 | 9,750 | Kitchen island, front bedroom and rear living |
| 280QBS | 34' 0" | 6,668 | 8,695 | Published specifications only |
| 29DCB | 37' 5" | 7,818 | 9,995 | Published specifications only · GVWR conflict |
| 29TB | 36' 4" | 7,358 | 9,758 | Published specifications only |
| 33BH | 37' 2" | 8,063 | 10,665 | Bunk beds, island kitchen · bath and a half |
| 33RL | 39' 3" | 8,833 | 11,395 | King bed slide, island kitchen and rear living |
Alpha Wolf is the laminated-fiberglass tier of Forest River's Cherokee travel-trailer family — a construction step above the metal-sided Grey Wolf and Wolf Den on the same drop-frame, half-ton bumper-pull architecture. Eleven floorplans are published for 2026. Six are profiled in depth here; the other five are catalogued from published specifications only. Forest River publishes no sleeping capacity, axle count, tire size or MSRP for this line in any of its three spec channels, so those rows are absent rather than estimated.
04 What owners & reviewers report
This is not a half-ton trailer
An 11,395-pound GVWR with a 1,195-pound dry tongue needs a three-quarter-ton truck and a properly set weight-distributing hitch. Do not take a half-ton's tow rating as the answer — payload is the number that binds.
Tallest plan in the line
11 feet 4 inches is four inches taller than the small plans. Measure your own rig loaded and check clearances on the route, not just the trailer spec.
Washer/dryer prep, not a washer/dryer
Forest River lists prep — the plumbing, wiring and space. The appliance is not included, and it adds weight against the 2,562-pound allowance.
Two awnings at 11 and 14 feet
The spec block and the factory floorplan sentence agree on the split-awning arrangement, which follows the three-slide layout.
05 How it compares
The same rear-living idea five feet shorter and 1,575 pounds lighter dry.
Same footprint, bunks and a bath and a half instead of rear living.
Cherokee's fifth-wheel line — the natural next step up from this plan.
06 Loading it for a trip
This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 81-gallon fresh tank is roughly 26% of the 2,562-pound cargo capacity, leaving the 33RL with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.
| Weight budget | Figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Cargo capacity as published (CCC) | 2,562 lb | Everything you add: gear, water, propane, batteries, food, people’s belongings. |
| Fresh tank filled (81 gal × 8.34 lb) | −676 lb | Water is the heaviest thing most owners add, and it is added first. |
| Cargo budget left with a full fresh tank | 1,886 lb | 26% of this plan’s capacity is spent before a single bag is loaded. |
The published dry tongue weight of 1,195 pounds is 14% of the 8,833-pound dry weight, which sits inside the 10–15% band usually quoted for stable towing. It is still a dry figure: loading the front pass-through and the fresh tank both push it up.
Nothing above changes the ceiling. Loaded to its 11,395-pound GVWR the 33RL is towing 2,562 pounds more than its 8,833-pound dry figure, and that is the number your vehicle has to be rated for — not the brochure weight.
Tank balance is generous here: 81 gallons of fresh against 70 grey and 35 black, so waste capacity keeps pace with supply and the fresh tank is the constraint that ends a dry stay.
07 Where this floorplan sits
Of the 6 Alpha Wolf floorplans profiled here, the 33RL carries the highest GVWR at 11,395 pounds. It is the top of the line by weight, which makes tow-vehicle capability the first thing to settle rather than the last.
Either side of it in the same line: Alpha Wolf 33BH is 730 pounds lighter at 10,665 lb GVWR.
| Comparable travel trailers | GVWR (lb) | Dry (lb) | Sleeps | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33RL | 11,395 | 8,833 | — | 39 ft 3 in |
| Nightfall 24N | 11,400 | 7,328 | — | 30 ft 0 in |
| Sandstorm 2513 | 11,400 | 7,629 | — | 30 ft 0 in |
| Salem Hemisphere & Heritage Glen 308RL | 11,385 | 9,543 | 4 | 38 ft 0 in |
| Zinger 340BH | 11,450 | 9,252 | 12 | 38 ft 2 in |
| Longitude 319BH | 11,335 | 7,788 | — | 38 ft 1 in |
| Coachmen Catalina 333DORM | 11,458 | 8,958 | 6 | 37 ft 11 in |
Against the 33RL: the Nightfall 24N is 5 lb heavier and 9 ft shorter; the Sandstorm 2513 is 5 lb heavier and 9 ft shorter; the Salem Hemisphere & Heritage Glen 308RL is 10 lb lighter and 1 ft shorter. Those are differences in the published numbers only — what they cost, how they are built and how they live are separate questions each of those pages answers on its own terms.
Those are the nearest travel trailers from other lines by weight — one per line, picked by proximity on that figure and nothing else. They are listed so the same tow vehicle can be checked against real alternatives, not because they are equivalent inside; layout, build and price diverge sharply across that group.
For scale, the Alpha Wolf floorplans profiled here run 5,513 to 8,833 pounds dry and 27 to 39 feet of exterior length across 6 plans. Where a floorplan falls in that spread usually says more about which vehicle can tow it, and which site it fits, than the layout name does.
Every profiled floorplan in this line, with the full weight table, is on the Alpha Wolf line hub.
08 Common questions about the 33RL
How much does the 33RL weigh?
It leaves the factory at 8,833 pounds dry, and its manufacturer-set loaded ceiling (GVWR) is 11,395 pounds. Real towing weight lands between the two and depends entirely on what you load. Use the GVWR when matching a tow vehicle; the dry figure is only useful for comparing floorplans against each other.
How much can the 33RL carry?
Cargo carrying capacity is 2,562 pounds. That is the whole budget: water, propane, batteries, gear and everything you bring. Filling the 81-gallon fresh tank uses about 676 pounds of that.
What is the tongue weight of the 33RL?
The published dry tongue weight is 1,195 pounds. It is measured empty; loaded, it runs higher, and it comes out of your tow vehicle’s payload rather than its tow rating.
What size tow vehicle does the 33RL need?
Your vehicle needs a tow rating of at least 11,395 pounds — this floorplan’s GVWR — and enough payload left over for the hitch load, passengers and anything in the bed. This site does not publish tow ratings for specific vehicles, because one truck model varies by thousands of pounds across engine, axle ratio, cab and package. The figure that governs is the payload sticker on your own door jamb.
What are the tank capacities on the 33RL?
Fresh 81 gallons, grey 70 gallons, black 35 gallons. Tank sizes set how long the floorplan can sit away from hookups, and the smallest of the three is what ends the stay.
How long is the 33RL?
Exterior length is 39' 3". Measure against your site length and your storage before committing — the exterior figure is the one that has to fit, and it includes the tongue or pin box.
Every figure in these answers is read from this page’s verified specification table. Where the manufacturer publishes nothing, the question is not answered rather than estimated.
09 What this page publishes, and what it does not
This catalog tracks 18 specification fields per floorplan. Named sources publish 14 of them for the 33RL. The rest are not shown, because the alternative is reading a figure across from a sibling floorplan or from what the segment usually does — and a number nobody published is worth less than an admitted gap.
Not published for this floorplan: interior height, sleeps, axle count, tire specification. If you find one of these in a manufacturer document for this plan, it belongs on this page.
The completeness figure at the foot of this page (96%) measures the same thing on the full field set: it is a measurement of how much this floorplan’s manufacturer publishes, not of how much research went into the page.
How every figure here was sourced and checked is set out on the methodology page.
11 NHTSA safety record
This floorplan belongs to the Cherokee Alpha Wolf line, and NHTSA holds 2 recall campaigns against that line. They are separate records and are not added together — a recall is a manufacturer-confirmed defect with a remedy; a complaint is one owner’s account, which NHTSA does not verify.
Recall coverage is not complete — our harvest of NHTSA’s recall API ran 1,556 queries, of which 0 failed and 242 returned an explicit zero. A line can still be under-reported where NHTSA files a roster under a parent name, or where a match rests on the wording of the recall rather than its model field. Complaints come from the complete bulk file but are unverified and self-selected: a high count tracks how many units a line sold at least as much as how well it was built. Check a specific VIN at NHTSA before you buy. Full tables are on the Cherokee Alpha Wolf line page.