01 What makes it unique
The 40DB is the roster’s answer to the question fifth wheels rarely answer well: where does the second household sleep? Two real bedrooms — the master forward, a second bedroom aft — each pair with a full bathroom, and two entry doors keep the households independent. The factory rates it for up to eight, tying the 37MD for the line’s top count, and it is the tallest coach in the roster at 13 feet 1.
The utilities are sized to the mission: a 100-gallon black tank (double the line norm) against 50 grey — the inverted split two bathrooms demand — and 120 pounds of LP, the largest reserve in the line, feeding the 40,000-BTU ThermaShield furnace. The platform is the full Bighorn build — 12-inch I-beam drop frame, 102-inch wide-body, CoreShield walls, painted cap, frameless windows, TrussXL truss, dual 15,000-BTU Whisper Quiet air, tankless water heater, hydraulic auto-level, mandatory Premium Package — with one deletion: the 3,000-pound rear tow hitch standard elsewhere is not available on this floorplan. The printed 18,850-pound GVWR — the highest in the line — equals 16,110 dry plus 2,740 cargo exactly on tandem 8,000-pound axles.
At 16,110 pounds dry with a 2,925-pound pin, this is committed one-ton-dually territory loaded. Eight people against 2,740 pounds of margin is workable only with discipline — and the 50-gallon grey tank, not the 100-gallon black, will set the dump-station rhythm. For two couples splitting a coach or a family living aboard with kids old enough to want a door, nothing else in the line is drawn this way.
02 Full specifications
Dimensions
- Exterior length
- 43' 10"
- Exterior width
- 8' 6"
- Exterior height
- 13' 1"
- Interior height
- 8' 7"
Weights
- Dry / unit base weight
- 16,110 lbs
- GVWR (max loaded)
- 18,850 lbs
- Net cargo / payload (CCC)
- 2,740 lbs
- Dry pin weight
- 2,925 lbs
Capacities
- Fresh water
- 75 gal
- Grey water
- 50 gal
- Black water
- 100 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 2,925 lb
- Tires
- 215/75R17.5'H'
- LP
- 120 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 8 (factory)
- Primary bed
- Two bedrooms
- Layout
- Double-bedroom, two-full-bath quad-slide — front master, second rear bedroom, two full bathrooms, two entry doors, 16-foot + 10-foot awnings
- Awnings & entries
- 2 · 16′ + 10′ · 2 entries (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
Two of everything
Two bedrooms, two full baths, two entries — the multi-household architecture, unique in the roster.
The inverted tank split
100 black / 50 grey — sized for two toilets, but the grey side will fill first under daily showers. Plan dumps around grey.
No rear tow hitch
The 3,000-pound four-way-pin tow hitch standard on every other 2026 Bighorn is not available on the 40DB — toad and trailer plans should note it.
120 pounds of propane
The biggest LP reserve in the line — matched to winter living with the 40,000-BTU furnace.
05 How it compares
The other eight-sleeper — a middle den instead of the second bedroom-and-bath pair, 460 pounds lighter.
The entry — for buyers who need the Bighorn build without the second household.
The multi-bath luxury field — the 40DB counter is the true second bedroom and the 100-gallon black tank.
06 Loading it for a trip
This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 75-gallon fresh tank is roughly 23% of the 2,740-pound cargo capacity, leaving the Bighorn 40DB with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.
| Weight budget | Figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Cargo capacity as published (CCC) | 2,740 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 | 2,114 lb | 23% of this plan’s capacity is spent before a single bag is loaded. |
| Per sleeping position, water aboard | 264 lb | A rough share of what is left across the 8 berths this plan sleeps. |
The published dry pin weight of 2,925 pounds is 18% of this floorplan’s 16,110-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 18,850-pound GVWR the Bighorn 40DB is towing 2,740 pounds more than its 16,110-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 50 grey and 100 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 7 Bighorn floorplans profiled here, the Bighorn 40DB carries the highest GVWR at 18,850 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: Bighorn 39RK is 650 pounds lighter at 18,200 lb GVWR.
| Comparable fifth wheels | GVWR (lb) | Dry (lb) | Sleeps | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bighorn 40DB | 18,850 | 16,110 | 8 | 43 ft 10 in |
| North Point 390CKDS | 18,850 | 16,195 | 7 | 43 ft 10 in |
| Pinnacle 39FLOK | 18,800 | 15,870 | 6 | 44 ft 6 in |
| Riverstone 39RKFB | 18,975 | 16,511 | 4 | 42 ft 1 in |
| Seismic 3512 | 18,995 | 14,285 | 7 | 41 ft 7 in |
| Influence 3804DS | 19,000 | 14,603 | 6 | 42 ft 6 in |
| Momentum 344M | 19,000 | 15,910 | 6 | 39 ft 11 in |
Against the Bighorn 40DB: the North Point 390CKDS sleeps 1 fewer; the Pinnacle 39FLOK is 50 lb lighter and sleeps 2 fewer; the Riverstone 39RKFB is 125 lb heavier and 2 ft shorter and sleeps 4 fewer. 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 40DB
How much does the Bighorn 40DB weigh?
It leaves the factory at 16,110 pounds dry, and its manufacturer-set loaded ceiling (GVWR) is 18,850 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 40DB carry?
Cargo carrying capacity is 2,740 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 40DB?
The published dry pin weight is 2,925 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 40DB need?
Your vehicle needs a tow rating of at least 18,850 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 40DB sleep?
It is rated to sleep 8. 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 40DB?
Fresh 75 gallons, grey 50 gallons, black 100 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 40DB?
Exterior length is 43' 10". 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 40DB. 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.