01 What makes it unique
The 36RK hands the best real estate in the coach to the kitchen: the galley spans the rear wall with the residential GE suite — the 21-cubic-foot refrigerator on its 1,800-watt inverter, the Profile range, the convection microwave with air fryer — while three slides open the living area amidships and the bedroom holds the front. Two awnings (16 and 15 feet) cover the camp side, and the grey tank runs 82.5 gallons for the dish-and-shower load a working kitchen creates.
The platform is the full Bighorn build: 12-inch I-beam drop frame, 102-inch wide-body with CoreShield 2-inch laminated walls, painted front cap, frameless windows, TrussXL truss under the limited-lifetime membrane, ThermaShield zero-degree package with the 40,000-BTU furnace and heated ducted underbelly, dual 15,000-BTU Whisper Quiet air conditioners, tankless water heater, six-point hydraulic auto-leveling and the rest of the mandatory Premium Package. The printed 17,300-pound GVWR equals 14,465 dry plus 2,835 cargo exactly on tandem 8,000-pound axles.
Two source notes ride this record: RVUSA and the early-2026 print carry a stale weight set (the June-2026 dealer-network brochure matches the current factory page exactly, which is what is used), and the sleeps figure spreads — factory four against the June brochure’s two — resolved to the factory. The main-ceiling figure prints 8-foot-4 here against 8-foot-6 on most siblings. At a 2,600-pound pin, this is one-ton work.
02 Full specifications
Dimensions
- Exterior length
- 40' 5"
- Exterior width
- 8' 6"
- Exterior height
- 12' 7"
- Interior height
- 8' 4"
Weights
- Dry / unit base weight
- 14,465 lbs
- GVWR (max loaded)
- 17,300 lbs
- Net cargo / payload (CCC)
- 2,835 lbs
- Dry pin weight
- 2,600 lbs
Capacities
- Fresh water
- 75 gal
- Grey water
- 82.5 gal
- Black water
- 50 gal
- Refrigerator
- GE 21 cu ft residential
Construction
- Frame
- 12″ steel I-beam · drop frame
- Sidewalls
- CoreShield 2″ laminate · high-gloss gel coat
- Front cap
- Painted fiberglass · clearcoat · LED
- Roof
- TrussXL truss · Alpha membrane (limited lifetime)
Running gear
- Axles (factory)
- 2 x 8000
- Hitch
- Fifth wheel · dry pin 2,600 lb
- Tires
- 215/75R17.5'H'
- LP
- 90 lb total
Galley & systems
- Refrigerator
- GE 21 cu ft residential · 1,800W inverter
- A/C
- 2 × 15,000 BTU Whisper Quiet
- Water heater
- Tankless
- Furnace
- 40,000 BTU
Sleeping & layout
- Sleeps
- Up to 4 (factory)
- Primary bed
- Front bedroom
- Layout
- Rear-kitchen triple-slide — galley across the rear wall, living area amidships, front bedroom, dual awnings (16-foot + 15-foot)
- Awnings & entries
- 2 · 16′ + 15′ · 1 entry (RVUSA)
03 Bighorn floorplan family
Heartland's Bighorn line — the flagship luxury fifth wheel of the relaunched range: seven 2026 floorplans, every one a 102-inch wide-body on a 12-inch steel I-beam drop frame with a painted fiberglass front cap, CoreShield laminated sidewalls in high-gloss gel coat, the ThermaShield zero-degree package with a 40,000-BTU furnace, two 15,000-BTU Whisper Quiet air conditioners, and a mandatory Premium Package that includes six-point hydraulic auto-leveling, a GE 21-cubic-foot residential refrigerator with an 1,800-watt inverter and a GE appliance suite. All seven plans are profiled in depth on the Bighorn hub with verified weights.
| Floorplan | Nominal | Sleeps | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31RL | 36 ft | 4 | Rear-living entry — shortest, lightest, friendliest pin |
| 36RK | 40 ft | 4 | Rear-kitchen plan — the galley takes the back wall |
| 38RE | 43 ft | 4 | Rear-entertainment quad-slide — most-listed; 137-gal grey |
| 37MD | 43 ft | 8 | Middle-den quad-slide — two living zones |
| 39RK | 43 ft | 4 | Rear U-kitchen, bath-and-a-half — respec’d stretch; best margin |
| 39FL | 44 ft | 4 | Front-living flagship — five slides, heaviest pin |
| 40DB | 44 ft | 8 | Two bedrooms, two full baths — the multi-family flagship |
Every Bighorn is a 102-inch wide-body on the 12-inch I-beam drop frame, and the Premium Package is mandatory — its content (hydraulic auto-level, the GE residential appliance suite with inverter, central vacuum, gel-coat sidewalls) is part of the Base MSRP shown. This is a published-GVWR-clean line: dry plus cargo equals the printed GVWR exactly on all seven plans. RVUSA and the library brochure carry an early-print weight set superseded on five plans — the current factory pages and the June-2026 dealer-network brochure agree exactly and are used throughout (the 39RK was respecified from a 40-foot-4 two-slide draft to the current 43-foot-3 three-slide build, logged). Dealer placards typically run above Base MSRP while negotiated street pricing runs below it. A fifth wheel loads its pin into the truck bed — confirm the pin weight against the tow vehicle's payload placard, not its tow rating.
04 What owners & reviewers report
The 82.5-gallon grey tank
Sized for the plan’s job — a rear kitchen generates dishwater, and this tank swallows it. Only the 38RE carries more grey in the line.
Stale early-print weights (logged)
RVUSA and the early-2026 brochure carry an older weight set; the June-2026 dealer-network brochure confirms the current factory figures used here.
Sleeps: four vs two
The factory page prints “up to 4”; the June brochure prints 2. The factory figure is used and the spread is logged — either way, a couples plan.
05 How it compares
The rear-living entry — four feet shorter, 1,405 pounds lighter, the friendliest pin in the line.
The stretched rear-kitchen sibling — the U-galley, bath-and-a-half and the line’s best cargo margin, three feet longer.
The luxury rear-kitchen field — the 36RK counter is the standard residential GE suite and the zero-degree package.