Editor’s note: This is the twelfth entry leading up to 2019’s Elkhart Open House. To read the last preview, click here. For the full Open House preview, be sure to check out the September 2019 issue of RV PRO.
Cherokee Wolf Pack
This year, Cherokee Wolf Pack toy hauler fifth wheels and travel trailers are offering bigger floorplans to accommodate even larger toys retail customers might take camping.
“The big motivator this year was that we had a floorplan to fit every side-by-side on the market including the Polaris RZR and the Can-Am Maverick. Then, they decided to build the Can-Am Turbo, which is 72-inches wide and almost 14-feet long. That was too big for any of our floorplans.
“So, we added a new 15-foot, 10-inch garage model – the 365Pack16 – and the Can-Am Turbo fits. The new floorplan will be a 102-inch-widebody unit with a half-bath in the back. That was the push to do that floorplan,” says Chris Grathen, sales manager for Cherokee Wolf Pack.
New floorplans in fifth wheels include the 365Pack16, 305Pack22, 335Pack13 and the 27Pack10 in travel trailers. The 305Pack22 is an open-concept floorplan featuring a 22-foot-garage that customers can drive straight into and into the kitchen and living area.
“When the slide comes in, the sofa folds up against the wall and the floor flips up to wrap around the front tire when the slide is in,” says Grathen. “It creates an opening in the slide floor where you usually can’t pull the wheel up, but now you can and it goes right around the front wheel.”
Grathen says the floorplan addresses feedback the RV maker has heard from customers on the West Coast, where they use their RVs in sand dunes.
The 335Pack13 is a U-shaped kitchen floorplan with a 13-foot garage, offering a slightly shorter, lighter and smaller unit than the 365Pack16. The configuration still has a half-bath in the garage, but offers a more open living area and more countertop space.
The new 27Pack10 travel trailer floorplan is a double-over-double bunkhouse.
“Generally, all manufacturers have a floorplan out there that is a double-over-double bunkhouse that is a volume piece and top-seller. This is exactly that floorplan,” Grathen says. “We put the bunks beds on a bed lift system so you can lift it up and create a half garage. There’s still a full ramp door on the back, so you can pull a golf cart, ATV or motorcycle. You won’t fit a side-by-side because it’s only a half garage. The other half will be a bathroom.”
A new solar option this year will allow the dealer to operate all 12-volt systems without the need of a truck or battery pack. Sales staff will be able to turn on the lights, operate the slide rooms and awnings for the customer on the lot.
For 2020, the Cherokee, Grey Wolf and Wolf Pup lineup have expanded to include the Black Label upgrade as an option across all platforms. Black Label upgrades include things such as frameless windows and a fiberglass exterior. (Note: Pictured is a 2019 model Grey Wolf.)
Cherokee, Grey Wolf & Wolf Pup Line
The Cherokee Grey Wolf and Wolf Pup lineup have expanded to offer the Black Label Line across all platforms. Black Label was in Wolf Pup and is now an option in Cherokee and Grey Wolf as well.
The Black Label offers an upgraded version of each unit with a fiberglass exterior, solid-surface countertops, a gel-coat exterior, frameless windows and other upgraded items.
In Cherokee, there will be the new 234DC, which is an open floorplan with a sofa dinette on the slide-out and a queen bed up front.
“It’s the perfect little couple’s coach,” says Collin Spickler, product manager. “It’s one of the smallest Cherokees that we’ve done. It has a full outside kitchen in a little 23-foot print with a big slide-out.”
As for the Wolf Pup lineup, the new 14CC Wolf Pup is the smallest Wolf Pup to be built yet.
“It’s the smallest we’ve got, but it’s literally got everything – a huge bathroom, nice big dinette and queen bed up front. What’s super unique is its rear-entry rather than the typical door-side or passenger-side entry,” says Spickler.
This allows the customer to utilize the entire awning. They can put a big table under the awning and not worry about the steps being in the way.
A new standard across the board will be a new refrigerator by Furrion, exclusively on the Cherokee, Grey Wolf and Wolf Pup lines.
Cherokee Alpha Wolf & Arctic Wolf
Product Manager Jeff Cripe knows his Arctic Wolf fifth wheels are his bread and butter. His group has performed a lot of research and used focus groups to poll as much information as they could to see what their customers wanted.
“We found our product is somewhat light and caters to smaller trucks,” Cripe says. “With that in mind, we went through a redesign in the bedroom and bathroom area to pull some weight out of there and the hitch area. We went from double entry to single entry, but that allowed the space to create a larger closet.”
The result was increasing storage space by 90 percent on an Arctic Wolf product that doesn’t have a bed slide.
The new 287BH floorplan is a family-friendly bunk model that provides a separate sleeping area in the back, acting like a closed-off room.
“Most people don’t like curtains, so it has a hard door. There are oversize bunks in the rear and a deluxe outside kitchen,” says Cripe. The 291RL floorplan has a rear living room, opposing kitchen and living room slides, a big island, coffee bar and full-depth pantry.
Cripe says the RV maker also will debut two new floorplans featuring a bed slide – the first of its kind for the product line. “These will be the first two we’ve ever done, but we saw with our platform as it pertains to weight and average cost of materials that it made all the sense in the world to make a bed-slide model. We’re rounding out the fifth-wheel lineup with the new entry of bed slides,” he says.
One model will feature a triple slide rear-living room with an outside kitchen. The other will be a loft bunk model with four slides, an outside kitchen, loft and lower bunk area.
Meanwhile, the Arctic Wolf interior is getting a new look with a modern farmhouse feel, featuring a new mesa maple driftwood cabinet color, a high-efficiency 12-volt residential fridge and exclusive Zebra shades that have both a light and dark panel, either filtering light or blacking it out entirely. Cherokee has the exclusive on Zebra blinds.
A new smartphone App will allow the customer to use the control panel in the unit to control mechanisms like the awning, light zones, slide-outs and the monitor panel. All models also will have an 80-inch residential queen bed.
Another exclusive for the lineup is a new MORryde step that’s still cantilevered but is now detachable as a kick plate.
Alpha Wolf will receive the same interior revamp as Arctic Wolf, and will feature a deluxe outside camp kitchen in every model.
Alpha Wolf will have the new 26RB couple’s coach debuting at the Expo, featuring a rear bath.