Today’s RV review is of a Palomino Puma 32BH2B. This week I’m coming to you from Elkhart, Indiana, where I’ll be for a couple of weeks. Part of the reason I am here is to serve you, of course. I sincerely appreciate that I am able to serve you with RV reviews.
Of course, I also really like being in Indiana at this time of year. Never mind that my favorite butcher shop is here or that the people are friendly. I do believe the state bird of Indiana may be the lawn mower, but that’s okay. The lawns look beautiful.
Anyhow, I was able to find my way into a dealer preview of a bunch of models—which are the ones we’ll be covering over the next few days. The first one I looked at was a 2023 Palomino Puma 32BH2B. This is a huge travel trailer at 38’6” in length. It is a traditionally built trailer featuring wood framing construction with an aluminum skin.
I was actually shown this model by my wife, who told me I had to see it. I’m glad she did, as the first impression I got was that the living space in this was quite spacious. Part of the feeling comes from the ceiling height, which measures 80 inches.
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Very flexible floor plan in the Palomino Puma 32BH2B
Talking to the Puma marketing person, she told me the idea of this trailer is to accommodate a lot of people in a very flexible floor plan. You could use this as a camper, which is a good situation for a couple who also wanted an office. Or, if you have in-laws (or outlaws, I don’t want to judge), there is an entire separate bedroom in the back with its own bathroom, no less.
That second bathroom is no second-class situation. It is a full bath complete with a tub. There’s a second bathroom up front with a corner shower. This is one of the unusual situations where both bathrooms are equally spacious and usable.
Further, the rear bath is sort of a part of the back bedroom, yet is also separate if that makes any sense. It has its own entry door, so it would be great if you had kids. But if you’re traveling with another couple, it works well also.
Back bedroom
The back bedroom is an interesting affair and, as mentioned, could serve multiple purposes. Along the back wall are bunks. There’s a trifold couch in a slide room with yet another bunk atop that. That bunk flips up so you can enjoy the couch as a couch.
There’s also a full hanging closet in the back along with a drawer. But here’s the thing. Those couches are really, really easy to remove. So if you wanted to have a desk in the back and make this an office, that would be rather simple to do.
You could easily remove the bunk above the desk, if need be. But we have been fine having removed the theater seats from our own trailer and replacing those with office chairs and folding adjustable-height tables. When I found a folding notebook stand to put atop that desk, I was like Santa Claus at a cookie factory.
But even as is, this is a space that’s closed off from the rest of the trailer, if you want it to be.
Living space in the Palomino Puma 32BH2B
I have written so, so many times about the small 16” oven. I was beginning to lose hope that a company would build a less-expensive “stick and tin” (wood-framed) trailer without using this cheap thing.
Somebody turn on that heavenly music because here we have a proper 22” oven in a more affordable stick-and-tin trailer. I couldn’t believe it—I almost hugged the marketing rep. But then I thought that would be weird. But I did ask them to tell the decision-maker to give themselves a big fat raise and a nice all-expense-paid getaway.
I’ve also noticed a trend in what I saw at that dealer preview, that RV lighting is getting a bit fancy. That was true in here. While there are plenty of very functional puck lights with their own little switches on them, there were also lighting fixtures that felt more upscale.
One of the interesting things I’ve done while here in Indiana was to tour a huge Lippert furniture plant. It was incredible. But the takeaway from that tour and seeing the upholstery in this Puma showed that RV interiors are just getting nicer.
Several companies actually are hiring interior designers specifically, rather than pawning this job off on the sales department. It shows.
I think the impact of people like Cortni Armstrong, the Flipping Nomad, has also brought awareness of greater degrees of style to the RV space.
One more thing. I noticed that these trailers also feature a high-performance vent fan in the bathrooms. Check it out—This is me thumbing my nose at all those stupid worthless four-inch fart fans that are pervasive in the industry.
A real oven, good vent fans, nice interior and interesting lighting. This trailer makes me happy.
Boondocking and travel access
I’m going to guess that a trailer of this heft and size is not going to be doing a lot of boondocking. In fact, I would expect that many of these get to one place and stay there. Not all, of course, but many.
I could be wrong, naturally.
But mid-journey access isn’t the strong suit of this trailer with three slide rooms. However, the back bathroom features traditional travel trailer steps and has its own door. So there are no issues with getting to this for a mid-trip break. The fridge and the rest of the interior are likely a no-go, but I wasn’t able to put the slides in to confirm this.
My conclusion
The combination of the very open-feeling interior and materials that felt rather fancy made the Palomino Puma 32BH2B really feel like a nice place to be. The two completely separate bedrooms and bathrooms make this a very flexible floor plan, as well.
One thing I didn’t like was that the fuse panel is in the back bedroom, where you’re likely going to have the youngest travelers in an unsupervised state overnight. I know as a kid I put a penny in a power outlet once. Once was enough, but I did it.
If I were a teenager again, the allure of all those lights and fuses and switches would be overwhelming.
Other than that, if I were looking for a way to travel with others or just wanted a large space that felt more upscale, this Palomino Puma line would absolutely be on my radar.
*****
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Tony comes to RVtravel.com having worked at an RV dealership and been a lifelong RV enthusiast. He also has written the syndicated Curbside column about cars. He also works closely with a number of RV manufacturers to get an inside look at how things are done and is a brand ambassador for Rockwood Mini Lite with his wife, Peggy.
You can also check out his RV podcast with his wife, Peggy.
These RV reviews are written based on information provided by the manufacturers along with our writer’s own research. They are based on information from a single unit and may not reflect your actual experience. Shop your RV and dealership carefully before making a buying decision. We receive no money or other financial benefits from these reviews. They are intended only as a brief overview of the vehicle, not a comprehensive critique, which would require a thorough inspection and/or test drive.
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##RVT1065
I think manufacturers just keep making these things longer and longer to put more and more stuff inside – that most folks are never going to use. Just more “bling” to attract unsuspecting first time buyers who think big is automatically better. They are blinded by the “stuff” they never knew they could have. Now they have it and don’t know what to do with it, and wish they hadn’t let the sales person (at Camping World?) talk them into buying a way too big trailer.
Suspension and tanks? Does it have leaf springs like most less expensive TTs? And is that high-capacity gray tank a single or double? If double, are they connected? Single gray dump valve or two, which requires moving the trailer to dump all tanks?
All-in-all, pretty impressive for the price! A bit big for boondocking, but certainly has the tanks to handle a family of 4-5 for a considerable period of dry camping (think USFS or BLM campground in the Rockies).
Oops! Looked at Palomino website–only “solar prep” and a “12v 11cf residential refrigerator” as part of a “required option” package. No boondocking or dry camping with that fridge, without adding a bunch of solar panels and batteries or buying a generator to run most of the time.
With the small fresh water tank this seems like a travel trailer that would be best at a site with it’s own sewer and water. CB panel also looks out of place where they have it located.
Definitely not 1/2T towable, more like 1T dually for stability. I can only imagine what a semi passing this trailer would feel like, a big tail wagging the small dog. You would need as many tires in contact with the highway as possible. At 38’ the axle placement would probably leave 15’ of trailer behind the axles, that’s a lot of “sail” to catch the wind.