Hopefully by the time you are reading this post you have made a decision on what type of RV you want, now let’s go through the different floorplan options. Let me preface this by saying this is no small choice. It took us several months of looking at floorplans to find what we liked. Even after we picked a few floorplans we wanted, it wasn’t until we actually saw the RV in person that we decided to get the Dutchman Kodiak Ultra-lite 332BHSL.

Thankfully most RV dealership websites have pictures of the floorplans and you can sort and filter by certain aspects of the RV. However, I think it is still a good thing to understand what you are looking at at a glance when you are scrolling through the listings so let’s go over what the model numbers mean.

The Number Portion

The first three characters of the model number can be one of two things and both are currently in use as of the writing of this post. One of the options is that the number represents the square foot of the RV. So let’s use the model that we bought, 332BHSL. If 332 was the square foot of the trailer and we do a little math:

Length x Width = Area in square feet

We know the width of an RV is typically 8 feet wide so we would have to adjust the formula to be:

Length = 332 / 8

The answer would be 41.5 feet in length. I can tell you that our camper is 33 feet long so 332 is not the square foot of the RV. 

Typically, according to the research I have done, is that in a fifth-wheel RV, the 332 would be the square footage. However, our RV is a bumper pull so it is different. According to what I have read, typically, in a bumper pull RV, the first two numbers of the model number are the length of the trailer. So for our trailer, the first two are 33 and our trailer is approximately 33 feet long, so that matches.

The third digit in the model number I really couldnt find anything as to what it was for certain. Some sources said it was the year that that floorplan had been manufactured. So in our case it would be the second year. Other sources stated that it was how many slides the RV has. Again it would be correct for us because our RV has two. Maybe it is just something that the manufacture does that isn’t standard across the industry, I don’t really know.

The Letter Portion

Now, on to the letter portion of the model number. The letter portion of the model number is fairly easy to figure out if you know what you are looking for. They are not standard across the industry, but they are typically pretty much the same for most.

Let go through some common ones:

Living Room

RL – Rear Living

• The living room area is located at the back of the RV, farthest from the tongue
• Example: 2022 Gulf Stream Rv Kingsport 24RLS

FL – Front Living

• The living room area is located at the front of the RV, closest to the tongue
• I have seen some really nice fifth-wheel RVs that have a front living floorplan that are very nice.
• Example: 2023 Forest River Rv Salem Hemisphere 378FL

RE or FE – Rear or Front Entertainment

• This is basically the same as the Rear/Front Living above, but it may have an upgrade entertainment system. This like a bigger TV or a surround sound system. Things that are normal the typical would have in them.
• Example: 2023 Cruiser MPG 2780RE

Kitchen

FK – Front Kitchen

• The kitchen is located at the front of the trailer, closest to the hitch
• This kind is geared more toward bumper pull trailers over the other types
• Example: 2022 Forest River RV Sandpiper Luxury 38FKOK

RK – Rear Kitchen

• The kitchen is located on the opposite end from the hitch at the rear of the trailer
• This is generally found on bumper pull and fifth-wheel RVs
• Example: 2023 Palomino Puma 30RKQS

OK – Outside Kitchen

• This is a small kitchen area that is accessible from the outside of the camper
• This could mean two things.
  • It may be a very small trailer and the only kitchen is located on the outside of the trailer. For example, a tear drop camper has out outside kitchen or
  • The RV will have a normal kitchen inside but also have a condensed version outside. Typically with a small dorm style fridge, sink, griddle or stove and some storage areas. 
• These are nice to have for those times when you are cooking meat or something that is messy to cook and you don’t want to mess up the kitchen inside to cook it. It is also nice for when it is hot outside so you dont heat up the entire camper cooking.
• Example: 2022 Ember Rv Overland Micro Series ROK

IK – Island Kitchen

• Kitchen anywhere in the RV but has a center island
• Example: 2022 Coachmen Rv Chaparral 336TSIK

Bedroom

BH – Bunk House

• Somewhere in the floorplan there is an area that had at least two bunk bed style bed in it. These could be smaller than twins like our bunk beds are or it could be about the size of full beds.
• The beds could be in their own room or it could be right off the living area with only a curtain for privacy
• Example: 2023 Dutchmen Rv Kodiak Ultra-Lite 332BHSL

MB – Middle Bunk

• Bunk bed area in the middle of the RV
• This style is typically found on fifth-wheel RVs due to their size
• Example: 2022 Forest River Rv Sierra C-Class 3660MB

BL – Bunk Living

• Bunk room that has a top bunk bed and a jack knife couch as the bottom bunk. It will have things like a TV, desk, wardrob area in it as well.
• This one is a guess on my part because it makes sense, at least in my mind
• Example: 2023 Forest River Rv Salem Hemisphere 369BL

QB – Quad Bunk

• Bunk room with four bunk bed
• Example: 2022 Crossroads Rv Sunset Trail Super Lite 299QB

TB – Twin Beds

• Twin bed in the RV
• This is typically found on the smaller RVs
• Example: 

Q or QB – Queen Bed

• A queen bed is somewhere in the RV
• Example: 2022 Crossroads Rv Sunset Trail Super Lite 299QB

DB – Double Beds

• 2 queen beds somewhere in the RV
• Example: 2022 Heartland Trail Runner 31DB

RQ or FQ – Rear or Front Queen

• Queen bed in the Rear or Front or the RV
• Example: 2023 Forest River Rv Cherokee Wolf Pup 16FQ

K or KB – King Bed

• A king bed is somewhere in the RV
• Example: 2022 East To West Alta 2600KRB

Bathroom Location

RB – Rear Bathroom

• Bathroom is at the rear of the RV, farthest from the tongue
• Example: 2022 Palomino Palomini 186RBS

FB – Front Bathroom

• Bathroom is at the front of the RV, closest to the tongue
• Example: 2023 Palomino Columbus 1492 383FB

Slides

WS or S – Single Slide

• RV only has one slide
• Example: 2022 Palomino Palomini 186RBS

SS – Super Slide

• RV has a long slide that runs the length of the main living area
• Example: 2023 Heartland Trail Runner 200FBSS

DS – Dinette Slide

• A slide includes the dinette
• I have seen a lot of floorplans of smaller bumper pull RVs that have just a single slide that moves the dinette out to make more living area.

TS – Triple Slide

• RV with three slides

Misc

SLX/XLT – Lightweight/Ultra-Lite

• Light weight trailers that are typically like teardrop or popup campers
• Example: 2022 Jayco Jay Flight SLX 7 154BH

W/WE – Western States Edition

• States like California and others have different RV laws than the rest of the country does. To comply with these laws, some RV manufactures have to make specific changes to their units for compliance reasons.
• This type is geared more towards motorhomes than towable RVs due to things like emissions laws for example.

There is a lot of model codes out there. Some of them are easy to figure out, others don’t make any sense at all! I saw one trailer that was a tear drop trailer and its model number was 10SS. In other RV the SS means Super Slide but in this instance…

Common sense tells me that when you are determining a model number for an RV, you want to make it where it will highlight the best feature or the most noticeable feature on the unit. Makes sense, right? Maybe if I knew what they stood for, then maybe I would understand why a letter combination was picked.

I hope that this bit of information helped you decipher the RV model numbers you may have been looking at. If it did, please consider following us on our blog, facebook and Instagram.

Until it is Hitching Time again…

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post is was published earlier this year when we first started out blog. I am posting all these blog posts from before prior to posting new content.