2027 Forest River Cardinal38DEN

The Cardinal 38DEN leaves Forest River's factory at 11,638 lbs dry, with a published GVWR of 14,235 lbs and 2,597 lbs of cargo capacity between the two. Cargo capacity is 18% of the loaded rating, and Forest River's own definition is worth reading before you plan against it: cargo capacity is what remains for fresh water, gear, food, batteries and every dealer-installed accessory. Fresh water alone is 8.3 lb per gallon, so filling this trailer's 60-gallon fresh tank spends 498 lbs of that 2,597 lbs before anything else is loaded.

Dry pin weight is 2,235 lbs, which is 19% of the dry weight. That figure lands on the truck's rear axle and comes straight off its payload rating - not its towing rating, which is the number most often quoted and the wrong one for this decision. Pin weight rises as the trailer is loaded, and a fifth wheel loaded toward its cargo capacity will put substantially more than 2,235 lbs over the bed. Read the payload figure on your own door sticker rather than a brochure maximum for the model.

Tank capacities are 60 gallons fresh, 38 grey and 38 black, 76 gallons of waste capacity against 60 gallons of supply. The ratio is what governs how long the trailer can sit off hookups: waste capacity exceeds fresh, so the fresh tank is the binding constraint and refilling extends the stay. Forest River publishes these three figures per floorplan, and they are the factory's numbers rather than a segment average.

Against the rest of the Cardinal roster this is the 5th of 7 floorplans by dry weight, in a line that runs from 9,688 lbs to 12,033 lbs. It sits in the heavier third of the line. Comparing floorplans inside one line is more reliable than comparing across brands, because every figure here comes from the same factory channel on the same day.

A useful way to read the pair of weights is to stop planning against the dry figure. Nobody tows a trailer at 11,638 lbs: that is the weight before water, batteries, propane, bedding, food, tools and anything the dealer bolted on. Load half the published cargo capacity, which is modest for a family trip, and this plan is already near 12,936 lbs on the road. Compare that number against the tow vehicle, not the dry weight, and leave margin on top of it - the published GVWR of 14,235 lbs is a limit rather than a target.

Every number above was captured twice from Forest River and checked against itself before it was published. The line roster block and the individual floorplan page are two separate factory renderings of the same trailer, and this plan's 4 shared figures agree exactly on both. Dry weight plus cargo capacity also equals the published GVWR exactly, which is the arithmetic check this site runs on every profiled floorplan. Where a figure is missing from this page it is because Forest River does not publish it in this channel, not because it was hard to find - and the row says so rather than being quietly dropped.

Forest River publishes no floorplan description for this plan in the channel this page is built from - only the numeric specification block. Rather than describe a layout from the floorplan code, which would be a guess dressed as a fact, this page carries what the factory publishes and says where it stops. 38DEN is a Cardinal designation and this site does not decode it into a layout claim.

Cardinal is Forest River's extended-stay fifth wheel, aimed at people who live in the trailer for long stretches rather than long weekends. Seven floorplans are published for 2027 and every one of them ties out exactly - dry weight plus cargo capacity equals the published GVWR on all seven, which is a cleaner arithmetic record than most lines this site has catalogued. Pin weights run 1,765 to 2,305 lb, which puts the whole roster in three-quarter-ton and one-ton truck territory rather than half-ton.

This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 60-gallon fresh tank is roughly 19% of the 2,597-pound cargo capacity, leaving the 38DEN with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.

The published dry pin weight of 2,235 pounds is 19% of this floorplan’s 11,638-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 14,235-pound GVWR the 38DEN is towing 2,597 pounds more than its 11,638-pound dry figure, and that is the number your vehicle has to be rated for — not the brochure weight.

Tank balance is generous here: 60 gallons of fresh against 38 grey and 38 black, so waste capacity keeps pace with supply and the fresh tank is the constraint that ends a dry stay.

Ranked by GVWR, the 38DEN sits 6 of 7 in the Cardinal line: 14,235 pounds against a line that runs from 12,188 to 14,305 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: Cardinal 36FL matches it exactly at 14,235 lb GVWR; and Cardinal 35CRIB is 70 pounds heavier at 14,305 lb GVWR.

1 other Cardinal plan shares this floorplan’s 14,235 lb GVWR, so the ranking above separates plans that tow to the same ceiling. On a shared chassis the figure that actually differs between them is cargo capacity and where the weight sits, not the rating.

Against the 38DEN: the Wolf Pack 275PACK15 is 25 lb heavier and 12 ft shorter; the Blackthorn 2990MK is 55 lb lighter and 9 ft shorter; the Eagle 370FBTS is 65 lb heavier and 4 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 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 Cardinal floorplans profiled here run 9,688 to 12,033 pounds dry and 35 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 Cardinal line hub.

Named sources publish 11 of the 18 specification fields this catalogue tracks for the 38DEN (85% complete on the full field set).

Not published for this floorplan: interior height, sleeps, slide count, axle count, tire specification, refrigerator, air conditioning. Those rows are left blank rather than copied from a sibling floorplan.

Sourcing rules: methodology.