01 What the Cherokee Wolf Den is
The Cherokee Wolf Den is Forest River's large-format value travel trailer — a full-size, family-and-couples line in the Cherokee division. Despite the similar name, it is a separate and much bigger line than the entry-lightweight Wolf Pup: where Wolf Pup is a small, SUV-towable trailer under 4,500 pounds, Wolf Den is a range of 33-to-40-foot coaches in the 7,300-to-9,000-pound unloaded band, built for half-ton and larger trucks. It competes with the larger Keystone Hideout and Springdale plans, the bigger Coachmen Catalina floorplans and the other full-size value travel trailers that growing families and full-time-leaning couples shop.
For 2026 the line is a tight six floorplans, each distinct: a rear-kitchen couples' coach (271RK), a three-bedroom family plan with an outdoor bar-and-grill (294GEBG), a large-family bunkhouse with the line's biggest cargo capacity (301BH), a rear-suite triple-slide (304SR), a rear-living triple-slide flagship (306MM) and the shorter rear-living 273XLK. Published gross weight ratings run from 9,995 pounds on the lighter plans to 11,273 pounds on the 301BH, and lengths span 33 feet 7 inches to 40 feet 1 inch. Earlier, smaller Wolf Den floorplans (the 16- and 17-foot EV plans and similar) belong to past model years and are not part of the current 2026 lineup.
Construction is the Cherokee stick-and-tin recipe scaled up: Power Gear frame technology with a Space Saver Rail design, high-impact front metal in place of corrugated metal sidewalls, an aerodynamic smooth-radius front, a Tufflex PVC seamless walk-on roof with a lifetime limited warranty, an armored underbelly and a five-eighths-inch tongue-and-groove plywood floor, all riding on the Cherokee Exclusive Stable Step. Equipment is full-size and residential: a 15,000-BTU air conditioner, a 30,000-BTU furnace, a 200-watt solar panel, a backup camera, a tankless water heater, a 12-volt refrigerator and an air-fryer convection microwave are standard, and every plan is also sold as a Cherokee Black Label trim — frameless tinted automotive glass, gel-coat sidewalls, solid-surface countertops and Thermo-Foil Arctic insulation — carrying its own factory-published weights (mapped in the Cherokee section below). This is a metal-sided value trailer like its Cherokee siblings — a step in construction below the bonded-aluminum Grey Wolf and the laminate Salem/Wildwood lines — sold on the gap between a high MSRP placard and a much lower selling price.
02 Floorplans profiled in depth
All six 2026 Wolf Den floorplans — the rear-kitchen couples' coach, the rear-living entry plan, the three-bedroom family plan, the large-family bunkhouse, the rear-suite triple-slide and the rear-living flagship — are profiled in full with factory-verified specifications, from 33 to 40 feet. Each is also sold as a Cherokee Black Label trim; the section below maps the two rosters.
| Floorplan | Unloaded wt | Length | Sleeps | Layout | Selling price* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 271RK | 7,569 lbs | 36' 3" | 3 | Rear-kitchen couples, front bedroom, two slides | ~$34,500 |
| 273XLK | 7,341 lbs | 33' 7" | 4 | Rear living + kitchen island, front bedroom, two slides; lightest/shortest plan | $55,993 MSRP* |
| 294GEBG | 7,336 lbs | 36' 7" | 9 | Three-bedroom family, queen loft + bunks, outdoor bar | ~$31,500 |
| 301BH | 7,891 lbs | 37' 6" | 10 | Large-family bunkhouse, front king suite, two slides | ~$34,500 |
| 304SR | 8,989 lbs | 38' 11" | 6 | Rear private suite, kitchen island, three slides; tightest cargo (1,006 lb) | $63,174 MSRP* |
| 306MM | 8,578 lbs | 40' 1" | 6 | Triple-slide rear-living coach, front master, fireplace | ~$35,000 |
Unloaded weights, lengths, capacities and GVWR for profiled plans are verified directly against the Forest River factory floorplan records (2026 model year) — GVWR is published on each plan's factory page, not derived, and reconciles exactly with unloaded weight plus cargo carrying capacity. Prices marked ~ are representative dealer-typical SELLING figures; prices marked MSRP* are dealer MSRP placards from the harvest record — Forest River publishes no single fixed MSRP, dealer placards on these plans run roughly $55,000 to $65,000, and selling prices commonly land in the low-to-mid $30,000s. Options affect final weights — always confirm against the unit's own weight sticker.
03 Cherokee & the Black Label trim
Forest River's current "Cherokee" core roster is this line: the factory's Cherokee floorplan page lists exactly these six plans as Wolf Den Black Label travel trailers, each carrying the base code plus a BL suffix. Black Label is not a re-badge — it is a trim with its own factory-published weights, and every published Black Label figure differs from the base plan's. Two Black Label variants (271RKBL, 301BHBL) publish no weights at all on any current factory render. The table maps the two rosters, base figures against Black Label figures, all from the factory's own pages.
| Wolf Den base | Base UVW / GVWR | Black Label code | BL UVW / GVWR | BL cargo · hitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 271RK | 7,569 / 9,995 lbs | 271RKBL | Not published | Not published |
| 273XLK | 7,341 / 9,995 lbs | 273XLKBL | 7,489 / 9,985 lbs | 2,496 · 830 lbs |
| 294GEBG | 7,336 / 9,995 lbs | 294GEBGBL | 7,509 / 9,985 lbs | 2,476 · 889 lbs |
| 301BH | 7,891 / 11,273 lbs | 301BHBL | Not published | Not published |
| 304SR | 8,989 / 9,995 lbs | 304SRBL | 9,120 / 11,314 lbs | 2,194 · 1,114 lbs |
| 306MM | 8,578 / 11,100 lbs | 306MMBL | 9,281 / 11,513 lbs | 2,232 · 1,313 lbs |
Every Black Label figure shown is factory-published on the Cherokee Black Label per-plan pages and cross-checked against the factory's Cherokee floorplan index render; on all four published variants, unloaded weight plus cargo carrying capacity reconciles exactly with the published GVWR. Note the ratings genuinely diverge: the 304SRBL carries an 11,314-lb GVWR against the base 304SR's 9,995 — more than double the cargo margin on the same floorplan — while the 273XLKBL is rated 10 pounds lower than its base. Buy by the trim on the order sheet and confirm against the unit's own weight sticker. Separately, the factory also lists a Cherokee Black Label fifth wheel, the 256RRBL (7,108 lbs UVW, 11,630-lb GVWR, 4,522-lb cargo, 1,430-lb pin, 30' 7") — a different body type under its own "Cherokee Black Label Fifth Wheels" grouping, not part of this travel-trailer roster; it is noted here so the name is findable, and Black Label trims of the other Cherokee lines (Wolf Pup, Grey Wolf, Timberwolf) are catalogued on their own line hubs as coverage grows.
04 Line notes & data flags
Wolf Den is large; Wolf Pup is small — different lines
The names are close but the trailers are not. Wolf Den is a full-size line of 33-to-40-foot coaches weighing 7,300 to 9,000 pounds unloaded, built for half-ton and larger trucks. Wolf Pup is the entry-lightweight line of sub-4,500-pound, SUV-towable trailers. Both share the Cherokee metal-sided stick-and-tin construction, but they sit at opposite ends of the size and tow-vehicle range; do not cross their weights.
GVWR is published, not derived
Each Wolf Den factory floorplan page publishes a plan-specific GVWR directly — 9,995 pounds on the lighter plans, 11,100 on the 306MM and 11,273 on the 301BH. Those published figures are used here, and they reconcile exactly with unloaded weight plus cargo carrying capacity on every plan, so the cargo numbers are plan-specific rather than a shared axle ceiling.
Selling price is dealer-dependent — flagged throughout
Forest River publishes no single fixed MSRP for Wolf Den, and dealer MSRP placards run high — the 273XLK lists at about $55,993, the 304SR at about $63,174, and an optioned 306MM at about $64,647 — while actual selling prices commonly land in the low-to-mid $30,000s. The value story for this line is precisely that gap. Prices here are representative dealer-typical selling figures, flagged with an asterisk.
Sleeping counts and interior fridge size vary by source
Factory pages list a 12V high-efficiency refrigerator without cubic footage; current dealers confirm a 10-cubic-foot interior unit on the 271RK and 301BH, while the 294GEBG and 306MM list only the 12V descriptor (shown unverified, flagged). Listed sleeping capacity on the 306MM ranges from six to eight across sources; the current 2026 figure of six is used and flagged. The 294GEBG additionally carries a separate exclusive outdoor side-by-side refrigerator/freezer in its bar-and-grill.
A capable tow vehicle is required
With loaded weights from roughly 10,000 to over 11,200 pounds and hitch weights from 900 to nearly 1,300 pounds, every Wolf Den plan needs a capable half-ton or larger truck and a properly rated weight-distributing hitch. Confirm your tow rating against the door-jamb placard before purchase; these are not SUV-towable trailers.
05 What every Cherokee Wolf Den has
07 Recalls
No recall campaign is filed under the name Cherokee Wolf Den. That is a filing convention, not a clean record: NHTSA files this roster under its parent line, Cherokee, so the campaigns that affect these floorplans are listed there.
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 (325,650 rows), which added 46 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.
08 Owner-reported problems
No complaint in NHTSA’s database is filed under the name Cherokee Wolf Den. That is a filing convention, not a clean record: NHTSA files this roster under its parent line, Cherokee, and the owner reports that cover these floorplans are listed there.
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.