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Fifth Wheel · Puma Sub-Line · Factory-Verified Weights · Single-Source Profile

2026 PalominoPuma Mesa 384RKH

The Puma Mesa 384RKH — 16,690 pounds of published GVWR against a 13,814-pound dry weight, leaving 2,876 pounds of cargo capacity on a 2,690-pound dry pin weight.

Tow-Critical Data — as built, MY2026

13,814lb
Dry Weight
16,690lb
GVWR
2,690lb
Pin Weight
43ft
Length
Fifth Wheel · Puma Mesa Cargo (CCC) · 2,876 lbs Built by · Palomino (Forest River)

01 What makes it unique

Forest River publishes a 16,690-pound GVWR for the Puma Mesa 384RKH against a 13,814-pound unloaded weight, and the 2,876 pounds of cargo carrying capacity that leaves is the second largest on the 6-plan fifth wheel roster. Dry weight plus CCC equals the published GVWR exactly, so the three figures are internally consistent rather than rounded against each other. The dry pin weight is 2,690 pounds before anything is loaded.

The 384RKH measures 43' 0" long, 13' 6" tall and 101" wide, and carries a 75 / 117 / 71-gallon fresh, grey and black tank set with a 11' & 20' awning. Height is the number to check first on a trailer this size — measure garage doors, carports and low branches against the published 13' 6" before the first trip. Against its neighbours on the roster, the shorter 388FKH runs 600 pounds heavier dry.

Equipment for this plan is published as 3 named packages on its factory floorplan record — the “Comfort Package (forced options)” and the “Stainless Steel Residential Style Appliance Package w/18 cu. ft. 12V Refrigerator and Large Range” and the “Voyager Package (forced options)”, listing 15 items and 5 items and 37 items respectively. The first package opens with (2) Residential Style Dinette Chairs, 2 Folding Chairs, Large Kitchen Pantry (Select Models) and Marine Grade Woven Flooring in Slides. Package inclusion on any given unit is not asserted here and Forest River publishes no MSRP for this tier, so confirm delivered equipment and current pricing with a dealer.

02 Full specifications

Dimensions

Exterior length
43' 0"
Exterior height
13' 6"
Exterior width
101"

Weights

Dry / unit base weight (UVW)
13,814 lbs
GVWR (max loaded)
16,690 lbs
Net cargo / payload (CCC)
2,876 lbs
Dry pin weight
2,690 lbs

Capacities

Fresh water
75 gal
Grey water
117 gal
Black water
71 gal
Awning
11' & 20'

Running gear

Hitch type
Fifth wheel (pin box)
Axles
Not published by source*
Axle rating
Not published by source*
Wheels & tires
Not published by source*

Systems — factory packages, as published

Factory package 1
Comfort Package (forced options) — 15 published items
Factory package 2
Stainless Steel Residential Style Appliance Package w/18 cu. ft. 12V Refrigerator and Large Range — 5 published items
Factory package 3
Voyager Package (forced options) — 37 published items

Layout

Sleeps
Not published by source*
Slides
Not published by source*
Entries
Not published by source*

Verified specs, drawn to scale

Original graphics built from this floorplan’s own verified figures.

Loaded weight budget

Loaded weight budget for the Puma Mesa 384RKHHorizontal bar. Dry weight 13,814 pounds, then cargo capacity 2,876 pounds, against a GVWR of 16,690 pounds. Dry pin weight 2,690 pounds on the same scale.GVWR 16,690 lbsDry 13,814 lbsCargo capacity 2,876 lbsDry pin weight 2,690 lbs — same scale
Drawn from this page’s published figures. The bar runs from empty to GVWR: the dark band is dry weight, the light band is everything you are allowed to add — water, propane, batteries and gear all come out of it.

Size, drawn to scale

Scale outline of the Puma Mesa 384RKHScale outline of the Puma Mesa 384RKH. Overall length 43' 0", overall height 13' 6", overall width 8' 5".end view8' 5"43' 0" overall length13' 6"
Overall length and height are drawn true to scale from the published figures, and the end view uses the same scale. Axle count is as published; axle position, wheel size and the nose profile are schematic. This is a size drawing, not a floorplan, and not a claim about body shape.

Holding tanks

Holding tank capacities for the Puma Mesa 384RKHHolding tank capacities: fresh 75 gallons, grey 117 gallons, black 71 gallons.Fresh75 galGrey117 galBlack71 gal
Published tank capacities on one scale. A full fresh tank is about 626 lbs of water — roughly 22% of this plan’s 2,876 lb cargo capacity, before you load anything else.

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.

Minimum tow rating your vehicle needs16,690 lb
Published dry pin weight2,690 lb
Loaded pin weight, typical range2,690–4,172 lb
Minimum in-bed fifth-wheel hitch capacity16,690 lb towed / 4,172 lb pin
The pin weight above is dry. It is the figure the manufacturer publishes for an empty trailer. Loaded — with water, propane, batteries and your gear — it runs higher, which is why the range row uses loaded weight. Sizing your truck off the dry number under-budgets your payload.
The arithmetic that actually binds. Open your driver’s door and read the payload figure on the yellow-and-white sticker — that number is specific to your truck as built. Subtract from it: loaded pin weight (use the range above), every passenger, everything in the bed and cab. What is left is your margin. Payload, not tow rating, is what most half-ton owners run out of first.

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 The Puma Mesa roster

Puma Mesa is the fifth wheel tier of Palomino’s Puma family — 6 floorplans filed by the factory under “Fifth Wheels”, sold under the parent Puma line and rostered on the Puma hub’s Puma Mesa section. Per this site’s family policy a factory sub-roster lives under its parent hub rather than taking a hub of its own.

FloorplanNominalCargo (CCC)Published GVWRPage
383RLH41 ft3,026 lbs16,635 lbs GVWRprofiled
377DS42 ft2,141 lbs16,480 lbs GVWRprofiled
379MBL42 ft2,121 lbs16,785 lbs GVWRprofiled
389FLH42 ft2,026 lbs16,555 lbs GVWRprofiled
388FKH42 ft2,271 lbs16,685 lbs GVWRprofiled
384RKH43 ft2,876 lbs16,690 lbs GVWRprofiled

04 What owners & reviewers report

The published figures tie out exactly

Dry 13,814 plus CCC 2,876 equals the published GVWR of 16,690 — no rounding gap.

A 2,690-pound dry pin weight

Pin weight lands on the truck bed, not a hitch ball — check the truck's payload rating, not just its tow rating, and confirm the bed and hitch are rated for it loaded.

13' 6" of height

Measure garage doors, carports, awnings and low branches against this figure before the first trip.

Sleeps, slides and axles are not published

Forest River publishes no sleeping capacity, slide count, entry count, axle count or rating, or tire size for this tier — confirm the layout and running gear on the unit itself.

Weigh the loaded trailer

Dry weight is a factory estimate for a base unit; options, water and cargo all add to it. Weigh loaded and confirm against your tow vehicle's ratings and the unit's weight sticker before purchase.

SOURCING — ownership notes to be expanded with cited threads from owner communities & forums per the data plan

05 How it compares

← Lighter
Puma Mesa 388FKH

-600 pounds lighter dry on a 2,685-pound pin weight.

↔ Cross-shop
Sierra Fifth Wheels

Forest River’s own fifth-wheel roster in the class above.

06 Loading it for a trip

This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 75-gallon fresh tank is roughly 22% of the 2,876-pound cargo capacity, leaving the Puma Mesa 384RKH with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.

Weight budgetFigureWhat it means
Cargo capacity as published (CCC)2,876 lbEverything you add: gear, water, propane, batteries, food, people’s belongings.
Fresh tank filled (75 gal × 8.34 lb)−626 lbWater is the heaviest thing most owners add, and it is added first.
Cargo budget left with a full fresh tank2,250 lb22% of this plan’s capacity is spent before a single bag is loaded.

The published dry pin weight of 2,690 pounds is 19% of this floorplan’s 13,814-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 16,690-pound GVWR the Puma Mesa 384RKH is towing 2,876 pounds more than its 13,814-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 117 grey and 71 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 Puma Mesa 384RKH sits 29 of 33 in the Puma line: 16,690 pounds against a line that runs from 8,553 to 18,575 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: Puma Mesa 388FKH is 5 pounds lighter at 16,685 lb GVWR; and Puma Mesa 379MBL is 95 pounds heavier at 16,785 lb GVWR.

Comparable fifth wheelsGVWR (lb)Dry (lb)SleepsLength
Puma Mesa 384RKH16,69013,81443 ft 0 in
Columbus 384RKH16,69013,81443 ft 0 in
Montana High Country 385BR16,68513,7941040 ft 9 in
Montana 3231CK16,68013,169437 ft 5 in
Wolf Pack 352PACK1516,74512,76845 ft 0 in
Cedar Creek 361RL16,62514,004439 ft 7 in
Pinnacle 32RLTS16,60013,545436 ft 5 in

Against the Puma Mesa 384RKH: the Montana High Country 385BR is 5 lb lighter and 2 ft shorter; the Montana 3231CK is 10 lb lighter and 6 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 Puma floorplans profiled here run 6,173 to 15,114 pounds dry and 30 to 43 feet of exterior length across 33 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 Puma line hub.

08 Common questions about the Puma Mesa 384RKH

How much does the Puma Mesa 384RKH weigh?

It leaves the factory at 13,814 pounds dry, and its manufacturer-set loaded ceiling (GVWR) is 16,690 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 Puma Mesa 384RKH carry?

Cargo carrying capacity is 2,876 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 Puma Mesa 384RKH?

The published dry pin weight is 2,690 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 Puma Mesa 384RKH need?

Your vehicle needs a tow rating of at least 16,690 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.

What are the tank capacities on the Puma Mesa 384RKH?

Fresh 75 gallons, grey 117 gallons, black 71 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 Puma Mesa 384RKH?

Exterior length is 43' 0". 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 11 of them for the Puma Mesa 384RKH. 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 (82%) 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 Puma line, and NHTSA holds 21 recall campaigns and 39 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 39 complaints filed on this line the most-reported components are tires (28%), structure (21%) and equipment (15%). 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 Puma line page.