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)
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.
What it takes to tow this
Built from this floorplan’s verified weights. We publish the trailer side only.
We do not publish tow ratings for specific trucks. A single model can vary by thousands of pounds depending on engine, axle ratio, cab, drivetrain and package — the only authoritative figure is the one on your own door jamb. Loaded pin percentages are industry convention for fifth wheels (15–25% of loaded weight), not a measurement of this unit. Hitch classes are not used here as a rating: SAE J684 covers trailers to 10,000 lb GVWR and does not define Class V, and capacity boundaries differ between manufacturers — read the rating stamped on your hitch. On this plan the convention band’s low end fell below the published dry figure, so the range starts at the published dry weight instead — loaded is never lighter than dry.
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.
06 Loading it for a trip
This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 75-gallon fresh tank is roughly 22% of the 2,835-pound cargo capacity, leaving the Bighorn 36RK with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.
| Weight budget | Figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Cargo capacity as published (CCC) | 2,835 lb | Everything you add: gear, water, propane, batteries, food, people’s belongings. |
| Fresh tank filled (75 gal × 8.34 lb) | −626 lb | Water is the heaviest thing most owners add, and it is added first. |
| Cargo budget left with a full fresh tank | 2,209 lb | 22% of this plan’s capacity is spent before a single bag is loaded. |
| Per sleeping position, water aboard | 552 lb | A rough share of what is left across the 4 berths this plan sleeps. |
The published dry pin weight of 2,600 pounds is 18% of this floorplan’s 14,465-pound dry weight. Fifth-wheel pin weight rides in the bed of the truck, so it comes off payload rather than off tow rating — and it rises with the trailer as you load it, not in proportion to what you put over the axles.
Nothing above changes the ceiling. Loaded to its 17,300-pound GVWR the Bighorn 36RK is towing 2,835 pounds more than its 14,465-pound dry figure, and that is the number your vehicle has to be rated for — not the brochure weight.
Tank balance is generous here: 75 gallons of fresh against 82 grey and 50 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
Ranked by GVWR, the Bighorn 36RK sits 2 of 7 in the Bighorn line: 17,300 pounds against a line that runs from 16,000 to 18,850 pounds. That position is the useful thing to know, because the plans immediately either side of it are the real alternatives.
Either side of it in the same line: Bighorn 31RL is 1,300 pounds lighter at 16,000 lb GVWR; and Bighorn 38RE is 695 pounds heavier at 17,995 lb GVWR.
| Comparable fifth wheels | GVWR (lb) | Dry (lb) | Sleeps | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bighorn 36RK | 17,300 | 14,465 | 4 | 40 ft 5 in |
| North Point 365RKTS | 17,300 | 14,505 | 3 | 40 ft 4 in |
| Wolf Pack 411STAY | 17,310 | 14,884 | — | 45 ft 0 in |
| Nightfall 343NHD | 17,250 | 13,969 | — | 40 ft 5 in |
| Pinnacle 36KPTS | 17,350 | 14,270 | 4 | 41 ft 1 in |
| Sandstorm 3513GX | 17,250 | 13,969 | — | 40 ft 5 in |
| Model Z 3400 | 17,495 | 13,898 | 7 | 38 ft 11 in |
Against the Bighorn 36RK: the North Point 365RKTS sleeps 1 fewer; the Wolf Pack 411STAY is 10 lb heavier and 5 ft longer; the Nightfall 343NHD is 50 lb lighter. 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 fifth wheels 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 Bighorn floorplans profiled here run 13,060 to 16,110 pounds dry and 36 to 44 feet of exterior length across 7 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 Bighorn line hub.
08 Common questions about the Bighorn 36RK
How much does the Bighorn 36RK weigh?
It leaves the factory at 14,465 pounds dry, and its manufacturer-set loaded ceiling (GVWR) is 17,300 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 Bighorn 36RK carry?
Cargo carrying capacity is 2,835 pounds. That is the whole budget: water, propane, batteries, gear and everything you bring. Filling the 75-gallon fresh tank uses about 626 pounds of that.
What is the pin weight of the Bighorn 36RK?
The published dry pin weight is 2,600 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 Bighorn 36RK need?
Your vehicle needs a tow rating of at least 17,300 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.
How many people does the Bighorn 36RK sleep?
It is rated to sleep 4. Rated sleeping positions include convertible furniture, so count the beds against how you actually travel rather than against the number.
What are the tank capacities on the Bighorn 36RK?
Fresh 75 gallons, grey 82 gallons, black 50 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 Bighorn 36RK?
Exterior length is 40' 5". 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 16 of them for the Bighorn 36RK. 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: slide count, awning. 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 (95%) 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 Bighorn line, and NHTSA holds 20 recall campaigns and 51 owner complaints 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.
What to look at on a used one. Across the 51 complaints filed on this line the most-reported components are tires (41%), suspension (14%) and structure (10%). That is where owners of this family have had trouble, so it is where an inspection is worth the time.
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 Bighorn line page.