2026 Highland Ridge Range Lite280MKI

The Range Lite 280MKI leaves Highland Ridge's factory at 6,960 lbs dry, with a published GVWR of 8,850 lbs and 1,890 lbs of cargo capacity between the two. Cargo capacity is 21% of the loaded rating, and Highland Ridge'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 55-gallon fresh tank spends 457 lbs of that 1,890 lbs before anything else is loaded.

Dry tongue weight is 720 lbs, or 10% of the dry weight. Ten to fifteen percent is the conventional band for a bumper-pull trailer, and this plan sits inside 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 55 gallons fresh, 71 grey and 30.5 black, 101.5 gallons of waste capacity against 55 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. Highland Ridge publishes these three figures per floorplan, and they are the factory's numbers rather than a segment average.

Against the rest of the Range Lite roster this is the 9th of 9 floorplans by dry weight, in a line that runs from 2,560 lbs to 6,960 lbs. It is the heaviest plan in the line, so the tow vehicle should be settled before the floorplan is. 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 6,960 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 7,905 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 8,850 lbs is a limit rather than a target.

Every number above was captured twice from Highland Ridge 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 0 shared figures agree could not be compared 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 Highland Ridge does not publish it in this channel, not because it was hard to find - and the row says so rather than being quietly dropped.

Highland Ridge 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. 280MKI is a Range Lite designation and this site does not decode it into a layout claim.

Range Lite is Highland Ridge's half-ton travel-trailer line and the longest-running roster the manufacturer publishes, live in every model year from 2023 to 2027. Eight floorplans reach a full profile for 2026, from 4,935 lb dry on a 23-foot 4-inch tandem to 6,960 lb on a 33-foot 2-inch, with dry tongue weights of 605 to 845 lb. That is a narrow band by travel-trailer standards and it is the point of the line: every plan is aimed at the same tow vehicle. Dry weight plus cargo capacity equals the published GVWR exactly on all eight.

This floorplan carries its water comfortably. A full 55-gallon fresh tank is roughly 24% of the 1,890-pound cargo capacity, leaving the 280MKI with a usable gear budget even when you tow full.

The published dry tongue weight of 720 pounds is 10% of the 6,960-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 8,850-pound GVWR the 280MKI is towing 1,890 pounds more than its 6,960-pound dry figure, and that is the number your vehicle has to be rated for — not the brochure weight.

Tank balance is generous here: 55 gallons of fresh against 71 grey and 30 black, so waste capacity keeps pace with supply and the fresh tank is the constraint that ends a dry stay.

Of the 8 Range Lite floorplans profiled here, the 280MKI carries the highest GVWR at 8,850 pounds. It is the top of the line by weight, which makes tow-vehicle capability the first thing to settle rather than the last.

Either side of it in the same line: Range Lite 270DBL is 650 pounds lighter at 8,200 lb GVWR.

Against the 280MKI: the Delta 281BH is 1 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 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 Range Lite floorplans profiled here run 4,935 to 6,960 pounds dry and 23 to 33 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 Range Lite line hub.

This catalog tracks 18 specification fields per floorplan. Named sources publish 11 of them for the 280MKI. 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 (100%) 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.