CleanDiesel
Norton, Ohio
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Joined: 06/19/2007
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On Dodge Rams, there are lift plates on the rear axle U bolts that you can move. Its sounds scary, but its very doable.
With the truck in Park and chocked, remove the u-bolt nuts and u-bolts. Move the lift plates from the bottom of the axle to the top (resulting in a lower axle). Make sure to place the lift plate back on the top of the stack as you need it to take up the non-threaded space on the u-bolt. Torque nuts back down (I used 140 ft/lbs as my u-bolt diameter is enormous and can handle it).
This easy driveway mod lowered the back of my 4x4 dually by 1.5 inches measured at the tailgate. My 5er now clears the rails much better.
Oh yeah - I forgot to mention, do one side at a time! 
TV: 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 SLT Quad Cab 4x4 Dually 6.7L Cummins Auto w/3.73s & Prodigy 
TT: 1995 Damon Escaper 5'er 36RLB
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SkiSmuggs
Northern Vermont
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Joined: 03/23/2012
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In setting up my truck and fiver, the dealer only left me 5 3/4" of rail clearance. When I commented on it, they said the fiver was already an inch high in front and they couldn't do anything else. I studied it after I got home, raised the hitch an inch, then will raise the pin box an inch to lower the front of the fiver. I wonder why they couldn't figure that out.
2011 F150 Super Crew EcoBoost, Short bed, Max Tow, Truxedo Lo Pro QT, SuperSprings, Bilstein HD shocks, Reese 16K hitch.
2012 Cougar High Country HE 299RKS 5th wheel, Reese Sidewinder pin box
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DSteiner51
Wooster, Oh
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Joined: 01/30/2004
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SkiSmuggs wrote:In setting up my truck and fiver, the dealer only left me 5 3/4" of rail clearance. When I commented on it, they said the fiver was already an inch high in front and they couldn't do anything else. I studied it after I got home, raised the hitch an inch, then will raise the pin box an inch to lower the front of the fiver. I wonder why they couldn't figure that out.
I must be missing something here??? Raise the hitch an inch then raise the pin box an inch still equals 5 3/4" of rail clearance.
D. Steiner
The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.
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DSteiner51
Wooster, Oh
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Double post
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SkiSmuggs
Northern Vermont
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DSteiner51 wrote:I must be missing something here??? Raise the hitch an inch then raise the pin box an inch still equals 5 3/4" of rail clearance.
Ah, I think you are on to something and may have saved me a lot of work. I was thinking of the pin box clearing the rails when it actually stays below the rails and being a Sidewinder pivots at the trailer instead of at the hitch. Since I've raised the hitch, but not the pin box, I need to hitch up and re-evaluate.
So what issues would a 33' trailer being 2" high in front create or is it worth worrying about? I could make up some of it by going from 15" to 16" wheels.
* This post was
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portablevcb
Tijeras, NM
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Joined: 05/04/2006
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CleanDiesel wrote:On Dodge Rams, there are lift plates on the rear axle U bolts that you can move. Its sounds scary, but its very doable.
With the truck in Park and chocked, remove the u-bolt nuts and u-bolts. Move the lift plates from the bottom of the axle to the top (resulting in a lower axle). Make sure to place the lift plate back on the top of the stack as you need it to take up the non-threaded space on the u-bolt. Torque nuts back down (I used 140 ft/lbs as my u-bolt diameter is enormous and can handle it).
This easy driveway mod lowered the back of my 4x4 dually by 1.5 inches measured at the tailgate. My 5er now clears the rails much better.
Oh yeah - I forgot to mention, do one side at a time!
It may be doable on your 2007 dually but not on the 2009 3/4T that I have.
2009 Dodge 2500 Double Cab Cummins
2003 Skyline Nomad 24ft Fiver
Me and Wife
Maggie the Old English Sheepdog
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CleanDiesel
Norton, Ohio
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Care to elaborate why not? No plates?? Plates are on all jacked up 4x4 Rams. Don't see 4x4 in your sig....
portablevcb wrote:It may be doable on your 2007 dually but not on the 2009 3/4T that I have.
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pressure_welder
brandon
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Joined: 02/05/2012
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My wife and i had the same issue on our 27' gulf stream conquest. This past october i took delivery on our 2012 denali dually, hooked her up to the camper for the first time this spring and was nose high. At the front of the camper to the bedrails i had 6" and at the tailgate to the bottom of the bedroom i had about 3 1/4" so nose high by about 2 3/4". So from that point your basically screwed and have no choice but to lift the camper as adjustments wont remedy the issue. So we ended up having to put a 6" lift on the camper, now just for liability purposes i had the local dealer do this because simply put if it falls apart and destroys the camper THEY get to purchase me a new one, being a welder this is hard for me to allow someone to do that kind of work to my camper but nonetheless. After inspection it dosent meet my standards so rather than going back to the dealer to have their unexperienced "welder" attempt to do a better job i am just going to "professionalize" what theyve done. So for those of you having lifts done by dealers INSPECT the work afterwards. A majority of these frames are light IBEAM, in any case you generally cant simply weld a section of tubing onto the flange of the ibeam and re-weld your shackles/hangers to it. Their is alot of torsional forces applied to that flange ESPECIALLY when you do the lift because the bigger the lift the more leverage your axle has on flexing that ibeam. So that section of ibeam that youve added the lift to should be boxed to prevent the flange from twisting, AND cross braces spanning to the other side of the new tubing to tie everything together. Iam sure their are some skilled welders/fabricators at these dealers but its my opinion that those are far and few between. Pardon my arrogance, but just because you can pull a trigger on a mig gun DOES not make you a welder/fabricator. So definatly inspect the lift yourself or have a friend who has knowledge in this inspect it, their are alot of stress points that need to be addressed!
2012 Duramax Denali Dually
2003 Triple E topaz 29' luxury touring edition.
1850 crestliner sportfish w/ 150 optimax
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bstark
Ontario, Canada
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Joined: 05/02/2004
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Oh brother did you hit on the biggie! Frames of "I" beam are subject to twist of that lower flange and the "C" channel and modified "Z" are subject to compression upward of the lower section with subsequent fractures of the vertical section. C****y steel exacerbates this to a large degree.
The "I" beams need gusseting to prevent that twist and can even require an entire web be added vertically to both sides of the beam above each and every hanger to prevent that twist, whereas the "Z" and "C" channel benefti from "boxing" the frame for the entire length of the frame section above the hangers and sometimes even beyond.
I have seen trailers dog tracking down the highway and followed them into rest stops to look underneath and the horror stories are beyond belief of folks who have no idea that their frame is toast.
Splayed hangers with cracks emanating vertically to almost the top flange of I-beams is a common sight. I followed one that was smoking on one side and waved them into a scale house to find his front and rear hangers had spread along the longitudinal axis of the trailer to allow both the front and the rear spring set to actually reverse their curve which let the flooring of the slidout above the wheel set to drop onto the tires. He was slowly burning his way through the floor of the trailer with the tires on that side and would have had a fire if not for me waving him in.
I was required to have a fire extinguisher in my truck due to CDL requirements in Canada to tow my heavier fiver and it took a few blasts of that to finally stop the smoldering.
You were wise to "allow" them to perform the work and then "dress it up" after without them knowing as they will play a dangerous game indeed trying to deny recompense should you later have a problem.
Today is just the tomorrow you worried about yesterday!
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wfreeth
Guelph, Ontario
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Just how far off from level can you tow a 5th wheel? I've got to find a way to level mine. The truck is a Dodge 2500 4X4 and the Pullrite hitch can't be lowered.
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