2026 Salem Cruise Lite 28ICE

The Salem Cruise Lite 28ICE is the family bunkhouse in the value twins' ICE series — a front private bedroom for the parents and a rear bunk area for the kids in a 33-foot body. The front holds a private bedroom; a single slide widens the central living and kitchen; and the rear is given over to bunks, with a bathroom serving the trailer. With the bunks, the front bed and convertible furniture, dealers list nominal capacity at six (one lists five). Its twin is the Wildwood X-Lite 28ICE, the identical trailer in different décor.

It carries the full Cruise Lite value-laminate build — a powder-coated I-beam steel frame, two-inch laminated sidewalls, a walk-on Tufflex™ PVC roof and an enclosed Accessibelly underbelly — with a 60,000-BTU on-demand tankless water heater and a 13,500-BTU air conditioner standard, and the current model year's retro/metal exterior, JBL stereo and 4K blade lighting. As with the rest of the ICE series, the Platinum fiberglass/solar package is not offered here; a 200-watt solar panel is the standalone off-grid option, and a 15,000-BTU ducted air conditioner is a standalone upgrade.

At 6,688 pounds dry against a 7,675-pound GVWR it leaves only about 987 pounds of cargo capacity — tight for a family trailer once water, gear and a loaded bunk room are aboard — so it rewards careful packing and a well-equipped half-ton, and owners should weigh it loaded. The factory record does not break out the refrigerator's cubic footage, so it is flagged, and the factory awning size is published as TBD. For a family that wants a private parents' bedroom and a separate bunk area in the ICE series — with the identical Wildwood to shop against — the 28ICE is the ICE family bunkhouse, with the caveat that its cargo capacity is the line's tightest.

Forest River's Salem and Wildwood are near-identical twin lines — the same trailers built on the same factory line, differing mainly in exterior graphics and interior décor. The volume laminate models are the Salem Cruise Lite and its twin the Wildwood X-Lite, which share an identical floorplan roster. The 28ICE on this page is highlighted; each other profiled plan links to its own page. Across both nameplates the family runs to dozens of floorplans; the highest-demand layouts are detailed here and the rest are catalogued on the line hub.

Fresh water is the single biggest line in this floorplan’s load plan. A full 44-gallon tank is about 37% of the 987-pound cargo capacity — enough that whether you tow with water aboard is a real decision on the 28ICE rather than a detail.

The published dry tongue weight of 675 pounds is 10% of the 6,688-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 7,675-pound GVWR the 28ICE is towing 987 pounds more than its 6,688-pound dry figure, and that is the number your vehicle has to be rated for — not the brochure weight.

Tank balance is generous here: 44 gallons of fresh against 30 grey and 30 black, so waste capacity keeps pace with supply and the fresh tank is the constraint that ends a dry stay.

Ranked by GVWR, the 28ICE sits 6 of 12 in the Salem & Wildwood line: 7,675 pounds against a line that runs from 7,520 to 7,830 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: Salem & Wildwood 240BHXL is 105 pounds lighter at 7,570 lb GVWR; and Salem & Wildwood 273QBXL is 5 pounds heavier at 7,680 lb GVWR.

Against the 28ICE: the Cherokee Grey Wolf 22MKSE is 7 ft shorter; the Campsite Reserve 26CJ is 1 lb lighter; the Campsite Ultra 26CJL is 1 lb lighter. 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 Salem & Wildwood floorplans profiled here run 3,836 to 6,688 pounds dry and 23 to 34 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 Salem & Wildwood line hub.

Named sources publish 16 of the 18 specification fields this catalogue tracks for the 28ICE (88% complete on the full field set).

Not published for this floorplan: interior height, tire specification. Those rows are left blank rather than copied from a sibling floorplan.

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.