01 What Surveyor Legend is
Surveyor Legend is the lightest-hitching line in this group by a clear margin: dry tongue weight runs 408 to 860 lb across fifteen published floorplans, on trailers from 23 feet 7 inches to 37 feet 11 inches. Dry weight runs 3,777 to 7,743 lb with 1,497 to 2,798 lb of cargo capacity, and every plan on the roster ties out exactly - dry weight plus cargo equals the published GVWR on all fifteen. Forest River publishes a floorplan description for thirteen of the fifteen, which is unusually complete for this channel.
Across the whole Surveyor Legend roster the published dry weights run from 3,777 lbs to 7,743 lbs, cargo capacities from 1,497 lbs to 2,798 lbs, and dry tongue weights from 408 lbs to 860 lbs. Exterior lengths run 23 to 37 feet. Those are Forest River's figures for a standard build, captured from the factory roster block and confirmed against each floorplan's own factory page.
Forest River publishes a GVWR for 15 of the 15 floorplans, and on 15 of those the arithmetic ties out exactly: dry weight plus cargo capacity equals the published rating to the pound. That check is run on every plan before it is profiled here, and a plan that fails it is catalogued with the disagreement printed rather than quietly corrected.
02 Floorplans profiled in depth
8 of the 15 Surveyor Legend floorplans are profiled in full below, each on its own page with the complete factory weight, dimension and tank block. The profiled set is spread across the weight range rather than taken from one end of it, so the lightest and heaviest plans in the line are both represented. Every plan profiled here publishes a full field set and, where Forest River publishes a GVWR, passes the dry-plus-cargo arithmetic check.
| Floorplan | Dry wt | Length | Cargo | Tongue wt | GVWR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19BHLE | 3,777 | 23' 7" | 1,831 | 408 | 5,608 |
| 19MDBLE | 4,100 | 23' 7" | 1,598 | 498 | 5,698 |
| 202RBLE | 4,931 | 25' 1" | 2,566 | 497 | 7,497 |
| 260BHLE | 5,778 | 29' 11" | 1,962 | 740 | 7,740 |
| 205RKLE | 5,843 | 27' 0" | 1,812 | 655 | 7,655 |
| 261RKLE | 6,078 | 30' 0" | 1,500 | 640 | 7,578 |
| 230MDLE | 6,088 | 29' 11" | 1,500 | 840 | 7,588 |
| 303BHLE | 7,743 | 37' 11" | 1,917 | 860 | 9,660 |
Every figure in this table is a Forest River factory publication for 2026, captured twice - from the line roster block and from each floorplan's own factory page - and cross-checked field by field. Forest River publishes no sleeping capacity, axle count, tire size or MSRP for this line, so there are no columns for them.
03 Also in the 2026 line
The remaining 7 Surveyor Legend floorplans are catalogued here from the factory's published figures. 3 of them are Forest River dealer-stock-only plans, which are real floorplans but are not orderable through the normal channel. A plan is catalogued rather than profiled when the factory has not yet published its full field set, when its own published figures disagree with each other, or simply because the profiled set is capped. Nothing in this table is estimated.
| Floorplan | Dry wt | GVWR | Cargo | Tongue wt | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19RBLE | 3,917 | 5,649 | 1,732 | 449 | Surveyor Legend |
| 19SSLE (dealer stock) | 4,128 | 5,625 | 1,497 | 425 | Dealer stock only |
| 203RKLE - West Coast Only (dealer stock) | 5,030 | 7,577 | 2,547 | 577 | Dealer stock only |
| 204MKLE | 5,493 | 7,550 | 2,057 | 550 | Surveyor Legend |
| 252RBLE | 6,033 | 7,735 | 1,702 | 735 | Surveyor Legend |
| 265RBLE (dealer stock) | 6,158 | 7,715 | 1,557 | 715 | Dealer stock only |
| 296QBLE | 6,806 | 9,604 | 2,798 | 804 | Surveyor Legend |
Catalogued plans carry the factory figures Forest River publishes and nothing else. A row reading “Not published” means the factory does not publish that field for that plan - it is never a placeholder for a figure this site could not be bothered to find.
04 How to choose
Sort this line by the constraint you actually have. If the tow vehicle is fixed, start at the weight column: the lightest plan in the roster is the 19BHLE at 3,777 lbs dry and the heaviest is the 303BHLE at 7,743 lbs, and that spread is wide enough that the two ends are not the same buying decision. If the tow vehicle is not fixed, sort by cargo capacity instead - the 296QBLE carries the most at 2,798 lbs, and payload is the number that runs out first on a long trip.
Do not sort by floorplan number. Forest River's codes encode length loosely and layout not at all, and this site does not decode them into layout claims. Two plans with adjacent numbers in this roster can differ by hundreds of pounds of dry weight and by more than that in dry tongue weight, which is the figure that determines what the tow vehicle has to be.
Where Forest River publishes a floorplan description it is quoted on the plan page and identified as factory marketing copy rather than a specification. Where it publishes none, the plan page says so instead of describing a layout that nobody has verified. That is the difference between a catalogue and a brochure.
05 What to weigh before buying
What this line is
Surveyor Legend is Forest River's lightweight travel-trailer line, fifteen floorplans published, three of them dealer-stock-only. Forest River publishes dry weight, GVWR, cargo capacity, dry tongue weight, all three exterior dimensions, all three tank capacities and awning size for every plan, and dry weight plus cargo capacity equals the published GVWR exactly on all fifteen. Sleeping capacity, axle count, tire size and MSRP are not published in this channel and are absent rather than estimated.
The four fields Forest River does not publish
Sleeping capacity, axle count, tire size and MSRP are absent from Forest River's specification channel for Surveyor Legend. They are absent from this site too. None of the four is estimated from the segment, inferred from a sibling floorplan or lifted from a dealer listing quoting its own guess back. Tire size matters most of the four: two codes a digit apart are different tires with different load ratings, and a misread is a safety claim.
Match the tow vehicle honestly
The plans here run from 3,777 lbs to 7,743 lbs dry with dry tongue weights of 408 lbs to 860 lbs. Dry weight is not towing weight - water, batteries, propane, gear and dealer-installed accessories all sit on top of it, and tongue weight rises with them. Forest River's own footnote calls unloaded weight an estimated average for a standard build. Read your own door sticker rather than a brochure maximum, and weigh the trailer loaded the way you actually travel.
06 What every Surveyor Legend has
08 Recalls
NHTSA lists 19 recall campaigns affecting this line. The earliest was reported 20 Dec 2010 and the most recent 23 Jul 2026. 14 of them are matched on NHTSA’s own model field; the other 5 name this line in the recall text and are marked named in text below, which is a weaker match and shown as one.
| Reported | Campaign | Component | What can go wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jul 2026 | 26V476000 named in text | Equipment | Incorrect water tank capacity information can allow the vehicle to be overloaded and increase the risk of a crash. |
| 29 Jul 2022 | 22V556000 named in text | Equipment | An awning that drops or extends beyond normal operation can increase the risk of injury. |
| 19 Jun 2020 | 20V360000 | Equipment | If the furnace moves within the cabinet, it may detach from the exhaust vent, possibly causing a build up of carbon monoxide inside the vehicle, increasing the risk… |
| 22 May 2020 | 20V297000 | Equipment | If the vehicle trailer becomes detached from the tow-vehicle, the safety chains may break, leading to complete detachment and potential property damage, personal… |
| 12 Feb 2020 | 20V075000 | Equipment | If the spare tire carrier and spare tire detach from the vehicle while in motion, it can become a road hazard and increase the risk of a crash. |
| 25 Oct 2019 | 19V772000 | Equipment | If the wiring overheats, an electrical short can occur, increasing the risk of a fire. |
| 8 Mar 2019 | 19V191000 | Equipment | The incorrect label may cause the trailer to be overloaded, possibly resulting in a loss of control and increasing the risk of a crash. |
| 4 May 2018 | 18V296000 | Equipment | If the refrigerator overheats, the cooling tubes may fail, increasing the risk of a fire. |
| 6 Apr 2018 | 18V222000 | Tires | If the operator goes by the incorrect information on the Federal Placard they can over inflate the tires and cause premature tire wear, increasing the risk of a… |
| 21 Mar 2018 | 18V185000 | Equipment | If the refrigerator overheats, the cooling tubes may fail, increasing the risk of a fire. |
| 2 Jan 2018 | 18V002000 | Electrical system | The incorrect circuit breaker can cause the wiring to melt, increasing the risk of a fire. |
| 18 Oct 2016 | 16V751000 | Equipment | The operator may over-inflate the tire based on the information printed on the Federal Placard. Overinflating a tire may lead to pre-mature tire degradation, a tire… |
| 13 Sep 2016 | 16V655000 | Tires | The operator may over-inflate the tires based on the information printed on the Federal Placard, possibly resulting in sudden tire failure, causing a loss of… |
| 22 Jul 2016 | 16V547000 | Equipment | If the vehicle is misclassified on the label, it can cause the vehicle to be overloaded, increasing the risk of a crash. |
| 9 Nov 2015 | 15V741000 | Equipment | If the operator installs tires that are the size that is indicated on the placard, it can cause poor vehicle handling, increasing the risk of a crash. |
| 9 Jun 2015 | 15V359000 named in text | Suspension | If the wheel studs break, the wheel could detach from the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash. |
| 28 Oct 2013 | 13V540000 named in text | Equipment | The incorrect tire pressure information given on the Federal Certification Tag and Tire Information Tag may lead to the tire being overinflated, resulting in sudden… |
| 10 May 2012 | 12V212000 | Fuel system, gasoline | AS A result, the line may break and leak l.p. Gas which may cause fire, injury, OR death. |
| 20 Dec 2010 | 10V648000 named in text | Wheels | There could BE A potential wheel failure and wheel loss increasing the risk OF A crash, OR personal injury. |
Coverage is not complete, and this matters. These campaigns come from two passes over NHTSA’s public record: a query-by-query harvest of the recall API (1,556 queries, of which 0 failed and 242 returned an explicit zero), and a sweep of NHTSA’s complete recall flat file (324,909 rows), which added 107 campaigns the API harvest had missed. It missed them because the roster it worked from was built by a catalog endpoint that refuses most requests, so entire manufacturer names were never asked about — NHTSA files several Forest River sub-brands as makes of their own. Two limits remain: NHTSA sometimes files a roster under a parent name, and some matches below rest on the wording of the recall rather than its model field. Campaigns affecting only pre-2005 units fall outside this catalog’s range and are not listed. This page is a starting point, not a clearance. Check a specific VIN at NHTSA before you buy, and again before you tow.
09 Owner-reported problems
No complaint in NHTSA’s database names this line in its model field. Treat that as no report found, not as a clean record — owners file under whatever name they were sold, and a newer or lower-volume line simply has fewer owners to file.
How this count is drawn. A report is counted here only when NHTSA’s own model field names this line. What the owner typed in the description is never used to attribute a report: our line names are ordinary English words, and an owner writing “imagine my surprise when the axle went” or naming the state of Montana is not reporting a Grand Design Imagine or a Keystone Montana.
Read these as reports, not as findings. Complaints are submitted by owners and NHTSA does not verify them; no complaint here has been confirmed as a defect, and none of them is a recall. The sample is also self-selected — only owners motivated to file appear in it — so a high count tracks how many units a line sold at least as much as how well it was built. Use the pattern, not the total: a component that keeps recurring is worth inspecting on any used unit. File or search complaints at NHTSA.