2026 Palomino Puma26FKDS

The 26FKDS inverts the usual travel-trailer layout: the galley goes up front and the bedroom to the back. The Forest River factory describes the floorplan as two entries and two slide outs, with a metal exterior and a 20-foot awning, and an interior of a front kitchen and a rear bedroom — sleeping five in about 31 feet. Putting the kitchen in the nose gives it the front windows and pushes the bedroom to the quiet end, and the second entry door means you can get to the bedroom without walking through the galley. It is the shortest of the eight profiled Pumas and the easiest to place on a site. It carries the standard Puma build: a powder-coated steel I-beam frame with steel crossmembers under .024/.030-gauge aluminum skin, an AlphaPly roof membrane under a limited lifetime warranty, R-7 fiberglass insulation cut and glued between sidewall studs on 16-inch centres, a 5/8-inch Araucoply plywood floor under a 25-year limited warranty, an enclosed Darco-wrapped underbelly with enclosed water tanks, a tankless water heater and an 11 cu ft 12-volt refrigerator. Solar is roof and side-mount prep only — no panel is installed from the factory.

Palomino publishes an 8,553-pound GVWR against the 7,053-pound dry weight, leaving a 1,500-pound cargo capacity and a 1,035-pound dry tongue — a heavy tongue for the length, which is what a front kitchen does to the weight distribution, and worth checking against your payload before you assume a shorter trailer means an easier tow. The tank set is 43/70/35 gallons fresh/grey/black. Palomino and Forest River publish no MSRP for the Puma line, so confirm street pricing with a dealer. The 26FKDS is the Puma for a small family or a couple who cooks and wants a rear bedroom in a body that still fits most sites.

Forest River lists all four Puma packages as required, but the Value Shopper Package specifies a 13,500 BTU ducted air conditioner and the Limited Edition Package specifies a 15,000 BTU unit in place of it — the two required packages contradict each other, so confirm the air conditioner on the actual unit.

Puma is Palomino's metal-sided value travel trailer — bumper-pull towables on a powder-coated steel I-beam frame, and a cross-shop against Forest River's own Salem / Wildwood and Aurora, Prime Time's Avenger, Keystone's Springdale and Jayco's Jay Flight SLX. Eight floorplans are profiled in full and linked below; the remaining plans are catalogued and shown muted. The 26FKDS on this page is highlighted.

A full 43-gallon fresh tank is about 359 lb of water (water counts as cargo: 49 CFR 571.110 S9.3.2), 24% of the 26FKDS’s 1,500 lb cargo capacity, leaving 1,141 lb (228 lb per rated berth). Across 24 Puma travel-trailer floorplans the water share runs 11% to 28%, and 2 give up more than this one. Nearest on that share: Puma 310RK at 24% and Puma Vista 401RLFT at 28%. Your own unit’s figure is on the label inside its entry door (49 CFR 571.110 S9.3.3).

Closest sibling: the Puma 310RK, nearest on the published figures. It differs on 5 of the 9 fields both publish (this plan first): length 30 ft 10 in vs 35 ft 6 in; sleeps 5 vs 4; dry weight 7,053 lb vs 7,763 lb; GVWR 8,553 lb vs 9,263 lb; dry hitch weight 1,035 lb vs 840 lb. They match on cargo capacity, fresh tank, grey tank and black tank.

Either side of it by GVWR: Puma Ambush 25TH is 320 lb heavier (8,873 lb GVWR).

All 33 Puma floorplans: Puma line hub.

Against the 26FKDS: the Rockwood & Flagstaff Ultra Lite 2606WS is 11 lb lighter and 1 ft shorter and sleeps 2 fewer; the EVO 2985VBX is 18 lb heavier and 3 ft longer; the Coachmen Catalina 263FKDS is 47 lb heavier and sleeps 1 fewer.

16 of the 18 fields this catalogue tracks are published for the 26FKDS. Not published: interior height, tire specification.

Values marked with an asterisk are arithmetic on published figures or come from a single source; the flag travels into the downloadable spec sheet.

Sourcing rules: methodology.