01 What makes it unique
The Freedom Express Ultra Lite 288BHDS is a dual-entry family bunkhouse — a sub-33-foot coach that pairs a private front bedroom with a rear bunk room, the two ends linked by a combined kitchen-and-living area. The rear bunks are double-size (good for kids or guests) with an exterior storage door beneath them; a front private bedroom carries a queen bed with vaulted under-bed storage; and a full bath sits between, with one of the two entry doors opening into it for convenience while the other opens into the living area. A large slide carries a booth dinette and a sofa across from an entertainment center with a hidden pantry behind a swivel TV; a full interior kitchen with a flip-up countertop runs the galley; and an exterior pull-out camp kitchen with a refrigerator extends the cooking outside. Nominal capacity reaches eight.
At 6,730 pounds unloaded and 32 feet 9 inches, the 288BHDS is a half-ton-plus tow, but it carries one of the more usable payloads in the line: a 9,000-pound GVWR over a 6,730-pound unloaded weight leaves about 2,270 pounds of cargo capacity, real headroom for a family loading gear and full water. Standard equipment is full 12-volt residential: a Magic Chef 10-cubic-foot 12V refrigerator, a three-burner gas cooktop with a microwave, a GE 15,000-BTU ducted air conditioner with a ducted furnace, a Suburban 42,000-BTU tankless water heater, a Freedom Solar Ready 200-watt panel with a 30-amp controller and 3,000-watt inverter prep. A 50-amp upgrade with a second 15,000-BTU air conditioner, a hide-a-bed sofa and theater seats are options. The grey and black tanks are 35 gallons each behind a 50-gallon fresh tank, and a 20-foot power awning shades the door side.
Construction is the Freedom Express Alumicage recipe — two-step pinch-rolled, vacuum-bonded walls with dual-sided Azdel composite under a LAMILUX 1000 fiberglass exterior, a 3/4 gel-coated fiberglass cap, a full walk-on roof with Dicor Tufflex PVC and a heated, enclosed underbelly, all over a spread-axle chassis — a clear tier above the metal-sided Catalina value line. For a family that wants double bunks, a private front bedroom, dual entry doors and a generous payload in a still-half-ton-towable laminate coach, the 288BHDS is one of the line’s most practical family plans.
02 Full specifications
Dimensions
- Exterior length
- 32' 9"
- Exterior width
- 8' 0"
- Exterior height
- 11' 1"
- Slide-outs
- 1
Weights
- Unloaded vehicle weight
- 6,730 lbs*
- GVWR (published)
- 9,000 lbs
- Cargo carrying capacity
- 2,270 lbs
- Hitch / tongue weight
- 680 lbs
Capacities
- Fresh water
- 50 gal
- Grey water
- 35 gal
- Black water
- 35 gal
- Refrigerator
- 10 cu ft 12V
Construction
- Frame
- Alumicage aluminum cage
- Walls
- Vac-bonded dual Azdel · LAMILUX 1000
- Roof
- Full walk-on · Dicor Tufflex PVC
- Floor
- 3" aluminum-framed · 5/8" ply
Running gear
- Axles
- 2 (tandem) (spread)
- Hitch
- Bumper Pull
- Suspension
- Dexter E-Z Lube axles
- Rock guard
- Front rock guard
Galley & bath
- Refrigerator
- 10 cu ft 12V (Magic Chef)
- Cooktop
- 3-burner gas + microwave
- A/C
- 15,000 BTU (ducted)
- Water heater
- 42K tankless on-demand
- Solar
- 200W + 30A controller
Sleeping & layout
- Sleeps
- 8
- Primary bed
- Front queen
- Layout
- Front private bedroom, dual-entry full bath, combined kitchen + living on a large slide (booth dinette + sofa + entertainment center), rear double-size bunks with storage door beneath, outside camp kitchen
- Awnings
- 1 (20' power, LED)
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 tongue percentages are industry convention for travel trailers (10–15% 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.
03 Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite floorplan family
Coachmen's Freedom Express Ultra Lite is the brand's value-oriented ultra-light travel trailer — a laminated-fiberglass, aluminum-caged line built to tow behind a mid-size SUV or any half-ton. The 288BHDS on this page is highlighted; the other profiled plans link to their own pages. Profiled here are breadth-spanning floorplans — a compact couples' rear-bath, a mid couples' coach, a dual-entry family bunkhouse, a dual-slide bunkhouse and the triple-bunk flagship — with the rest of the roster catalogued on the line hub and profiled in demand order. (Coachmen also fields an entry-trim Freedom Express Select sub-line, summarized on the hub.)
| Floorplan | Nominal | Sleeps | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 192RBS | 22' 5" | 3 | Front bed, rear bath, sofa slide, single-axle-class couples |
| 22MLS | 26' 10" | 4 | Front bed, U-dinette, mid-galley, standard theater seats, single slide |
| 245RKS | 28' 5" | 4 | Rear kitchen, front bed, walk-through bath, theater seating |
| 258BHS | 29' 6" | 8 | Front bed, rear double-size bunks, U-dinette slide, camp kitchen |
| 252RBS | 29' 8" | 4 | Front bed, rear bath, outside kitchen, fireplace |
| 259FKDS | 29' 11" | 4 | Front kitchen, rear KING bed, two slides, fireplace |
| 271BHE | 29' 11" | 4 | Dual-entry private bunk room + front bed, outdoor griddle |
| 274RKS | 31' 10" | 4 | Rear kitchen, front bedroom, fireplace slide, hide-a-bed, outside kitchen |
| 288BHDS | 32' 9" | 8 | Dual-entry family bunkhouse, double bunks, front bedroom, outside kitchen |
| 292BHDS | 33' 4" | 8 | Rear bunk room, U-dinette slide, island entertainment |
| 320BHDS | 36' 10" | 8 | Triple bunks, 3 slides, kitchen island, fireplace, 20' awning |
| 326BHDS | 36' 10" | 9 | Three bunks, rear bunk-room half bath, fireplace, dual awnings |
Every Freedom Express Ultra Lite uses Alumicage construction: two-step pinch-rolled and vacuum-bonded walls with dual-sided Azdel composite under a LAMILUX 1000 fiberglass exterior, a 3/4 gel-coated fiberglass cap with an automotive-glass windshield, a full walk-on roof with Dicor Tufflex PVC roofing, a 3-inch aluminum-framed floor with 5/8-inch plywood decking and a heated, enclosed underbelly — a clear construction tier above the metal-sided Catalina value line, alongside Coachmen's premium Apex Ultra-Lite. Standard equipment is full 12-volt residential: a Magic Chef 10-cubic-foot 12V double-door refrigerator, a 3-burner gas cooktop with a microwave, a Suburban 42,000-BTU tankless water heater, a GE 15,000-BTU roof air conditioner (with ducted furnace and A/C on all plans except the 192), a Freedom Solar Ready 200-watt panel with a 30-amp controller and 3,000-watt inverter prep, a central vacuum, a porcelain toilet, a power tongue jack, a power awning and backup-camera prep. A 50-amp upgrade with a second 15,000-BTU air conditioner, a hide-a-bed sofa, theater seats and power stabilizer jacks are options on select plans. Lengths, weights and equipment change with options and model year — always confirm against the unit's own weight sticker. Additional Freedom Express Ultra Lite and Select floorplans are catalogued on the line hub.
04 What owners & reviewers report
Double bunks plus a private front bedroom
Rear double-size bunks (with an exterior storage door beneath) and a separate front queen bedroom give a family real separation — kids in the back, adults up front.
Dual entry doors and a big payload
Two entry doors (one into the full bath, one into the living area) ease the morning rush, and a 9,000-lb GVWR over a 6,730-lb unloaded weight leaves about 2,270 lb of cargo capacity — generous for a bunkhouse this size.
Combined kitchen-living on a large slide + outside kitchen
A booth dinette and sofa face an entertainment center with a hidden pantry on the slide, and an exterior pull-out camp kitchen with a refrigerator extends the cooking outdoors.
Sleeps eight on the factory record
The factory and dealer spec tables list a sleeping capacity of eight; some dealer marketing copy says up to ten — the factory figure of eight is used here.
A half-ton-plus tow
At 6,730 lb UVW and a 9,000-lb GVWR, the 288BHDS wants a capable half-ton or larger — the higher GVWR is what creates the generous payload, so confirm your truck’s rating.
Selling price runs well below the placard
Dealer MSRP placards run high while selling prices commonly land near $36,000–$38,000; the figure shown is dealer-typical selling and is flagged.
05 How it compares
A compact dual-entry family bunkhouse under 30 feet — a private bunk room in a shorter, lighter body with a lower GVWR.
A slightly longer single-slide bunkhouse — a rear bunk room with a double plus an upper bunk and a higher GVWR, for a bigger family.
A dual-entry double-bunk family plan one construction tier down — metal-sided value build, heavier, at a lower price.
06 Loading it for a trip
This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 50-gallon fresh tank is roughly 18% of the 2,270-pound cargo capacity, leaving the 288BHDS with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.
| Weight budget | Figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Cargo capacity as published (CCC) | 2,270 lb | Everything you add: gear, water, propane, batteries, food, people’s belongings. |
| Fresh tank filled (50 gal × 8.34 lb) | −417 lb | Water is the heaviest thing most owners add, and it is added first. |
| Cargo budget left with a full fresh tank | 1,853 lb | 18% of this plan’s capacity is spent before a single bag is loaded. |
| Per sleeping position, water aboard | 232 lb | A rough share of what is left across the 8 berths this plan sleeps. |
The published dry tongue weight of 680 pounds is 10% of the 6,730-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 9,000-pound GVWR the 288BHDS is towing 2,270 pounds more than its 6,730-pound dry figure, and that is the number your vehicle has to be rated for — not the brochure weight.
Tank balance is generous here: 50 gallons of fresh against 35 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
Ranked by GVWR, the 288BHDS sits 9 of 12 in the Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite line: 9,000 pounds against a line that runs from 6,094 to 10,500 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: Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite 274RKS matches it exactly at 9,000 lb GVWR; and Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite 292BHDS is 500 pounds heavier at 9,500 lb GVWR.
3 other Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite plans share this floorplan’s 9,000 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.
| Comparable travel trailers | GVWR (lb) | Dry (lb) | Sleeps | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 288BHDS | 9,000 | 6,730 | 8 | 32 ft 9 in |
| Jay Feather 32RL | 9,000 | 7,580 | 6 | 35 ft 6 in |
| Jay Flight 335BHS | 9,000 | 6,925 | 10 | 37 ft 7 in |
| Passport 2900BH | 9,000 | 6,956 | 10 | 33 ft 3 in |
| Springdale 241FK | 9,000 | 6,505 | 4 | 28 ft 8 in |
| White Hawk 32RL | 9,000 | 7,530 | 6 | 36 ft 10 in |
| Westbrook Luxury 285BHLC | 8,908 | 6,908 | — | 32 ft 7 in |
Against the 288BHDS: the Jay Feather 32RL is 3 ft longer and sleeps 2 fewer; the Jay Flight 335BHS is 5 ft longer and sleeps 2 more; the Passport 2900BH sleeps 2 more. 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 Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite floorplans profiled here run 4,538 to 8,396 pounds dry and 22 to 37 feet of exterior length across 12 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 Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite line hub.
08 Common questions about the 288BHDS
How much does the 288BHDS weigh?
It leaves the factory at 6,730 pounds dry, and its manufacturer-set loaded ceiling (GVWR) is 9,000 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 288BHDS carry?
Cargo carrying capacity is 2,270 pounds. That is the whole budget: water, propane, batteries, gear and everything you bring. Filling the 50-gallon fresh tank uses about 417 pounds of that.
What is the tongue weight of the 288BHDS?
The published dry tongue weight is 680 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 288BHDS need?
Your vehicle needs a tow rating of at least 9,000 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 288BHDS 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 288BHDS?
Fresh 50 gallons, grey 35 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 288BHDS?
Exterior length is 32' 9". 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 288BHDS. 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, 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 (93%) 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.
Values on this page carrying an asterisk were derived by arithmetic from published figures, or come from a single source, rather than being printed directly by the manufacturer. The flag travels with the number into the downloadable spec sheet.
How every figure here was sourced and checked is set out on the methodology page.
11 NHTSA safety record
This floorplan belongs to the Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite line, and NHTSA holds 13 recall campaigns and 45 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 45 complaints filed on this line the most-reported components are structure (24%), suspension (24%) and tires (18%). 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 Coachmen Freedom Express Ultra Lite line page.