2026 Forest River Nightfall28N

The Nightfall 28N leaves Forest River's factory at 8,393 lbs dry, with a published GVWR of 13,500 lbs and 5,107 lbs of cargo capacity between the two. Cargo capacity is 38% 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 102-gallon fresh tank spends 847 lbs of that 5,107 lbs before anything else is loaded.

Dry tongue weight is 1,500 lbs, or 18% of the dry weight. Ten to fifteen percent is the conventional band for a bumper-pull trailer, and this plan sits above it as published. Tongue weight is not fixed: it moves with how the trailer is loaded, and weight added ahead of the axles raises it. A weight-distribution hitch is the normal fitment at this tongue load, and the tow vehicle's tongue-weight limit is a separate number from its trailer-weight limit.

Tank capacities are 102 gallons fresh, 80 grey and 40 black, 120 gallons of waste capacity against 102 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 Nightfall roster this is the 7th of 14 floorplans by dry weight, in a line that runs from 6,368 lbs to 15,679 lbs. It sits in the middle of the line by weight. 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 8,393 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 10,947 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 13,500 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. 28N is a Nightfall designation and this site does not decode it into a layout claim.

Nightfall is published as one roster that spans two different towing propositions, and the split is the first thing to understand about it. Forest River files fourteen floorplans under the name in three groupings - travel-trailer toy haulers, fifth-wheel toy haulers and HD fifth-wheel toy haulers - plus four more sold dealer-stock only. The bumper-pull plans run 6,758 to 9,383 lb dry with 1,175 to 1,500 lb on the tongue. The fifth wheels run 9,459 to 15,679 lb dry with 2,165 to 3,765 lb on the pin. Those are not two ends of one range; they are two vehicle classes sharing a badge, and the grouping a plan belongs to tells you which truck you need far better than its floorplan number does. Both are in the table below.

This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 102-gallon fresh tank is roughly 17% of the 5,107-pound cargo capacity, leaving the 28N with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.

The published dry tongue weight of 1,500 pounds is 18% of the 8,393-pound dry weight — at or above the top of the usual 10–15% band before you load anything. A nose-heavy dry figure eats truck payload directly, so budget the hitch load against your door-jamb sticker rather than against the tow rating.

Nothing above changes the ceiling. Loaded to its 13,500-pound GVWR the 28N is towing 5,107 pounds more than its 8,393-pound dry figure, and that is the number your vehicle has to be rated for — not the brochure weight.

Tank balance is generous here: 102 gallons of fresh against 80 grey and 40 black, so waste capacity keeps pace with supply and the fresh tank is the constraint that ends a dry stay.

Ranked by GVWR, the 28N sits 4 of 8 in the Nightfall line: 13,500 pounds against a line that runs from 11,375 to 21,000 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: Nightfall 29N is 5 pounds lighter at 13,495 lb GVWR; and Nightfall 350N is 3,290 pounds heavier at 16,790 lb GVWR.

Against the 28N: the Sandstorm 2730 is 30 lb lighter; the Cherokee Timberwolf 39DC is 30 lb lighter and 11 ft longer; the Cascade 39DLC is 158 lb lighter and 8 ft longer. 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 Nightfall floorplans profiled here run 6,758 to 15,679 pounds dry and 28 to 45 feet of exterior length across 8 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 Nightfall line hub.

This catalog tracks 18 specification fields per floorplan. Named sources publish 11 of them for the 28N. 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, sleeps, slide count, axle count, tire specification, refrigerator, air conditioning. 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 (85%) 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.