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akronharry's avatar
akronharry
Explorer
Mar 16, 2015

Pulling Trailer with 2014 Ram 2500. Balance question.

My 25 foot travel trailer front sits higher than the rear by about 2 inches. I cannot adjust the hitch any further. My rear tires on my Ram 2500 LONG bed are pressurized at 80 lbs. Can I reduce pressure to 60-70 lbs to even everything out or just leave it as it is? Does it really make that much difference? Thanks in advance.

17 Replies

  • A nose high trailer generally speaking means less stable towing.
    Get a longer drop shank. Don’t air down the tires.
  • akronharry wrote:
    My 25 foot travel trailer front sits higher than the rear by about 2 inches. I cannot adjust the hitch any further. My rear tires on my Ram 2500 LONG bed are pressurized at 80 lbs. Can I reduce pressure to 60-70 lbs to even everything out or just leave it as it is? Does it really make that much difference? Thanks in advance.

    Sure. No problems.
    I would bet your TT hitch weight may be 900-1000 lbs plus your trucks 3000 lb empty rear axle weight = 4000 lbs on two rear tires or 2000 lbs per tire.

    A LT265/70-17 E at 80 PSI = 3195 lb per tire in your case will have the tires wearing the centers with a rough ride.

    Firestone load pressure charts on page http://www.firestonetrucktires.com/pdf/Firestone_Load_Table.pdf for the above size tire shows;
    45 psi = 2255 lbs
    55 psi = 2595 lbs
    65 psi = 2910 lbs
    75 psi = 3005 lbs

    I would add 5 psi per tire or so as a high sided trailer in strong side winds can cause more load on the lee side tires.
  • I personally feel that you really shouldn't air down your tires unless you know how much additional weight you have riding on your rear axle and consult a load book to figure out how much pressure you truly need to meet that minimum. Otherwise, I would keep it at 80 psi. What kills tires is flex. Higher pressure reduces flex as the tire rotates which also reduces the amount of heat generated in the tire which ultimately causes separation and a host of other issues.
  • If you drop down to 60 psi on the rear tires the truck is not really going to sit any lower and your TPMS alarm is going to go off on a cool morning and the only way to reset it is to air the tires back up to 80 psi. A drop shank or more weight in the back of the truck are the only practical solutions.
  • What WDH do you have? I'm sure there is a longer drop shank available.
  • When I switched TV's I had to buy a new shank for my WDH to accommodate the higher TV hitch height. Two tries and $125 later the problem was solved.

    It seems a 9 inch drop is really 14 inches if you put a tape measure on the shank. A 6 inch shank would be 11 inches and so on....
  • Yo can probably get down to 70 psi but it wont lower the trailer significant enough amount and the attitude between them will still be off.
    You can buy a longer draw bar so you can adjust it more. That's what I did.