Change tag axle ride height?

[tree98]

I have a truck with a pusher and a tag. The down bags on the pusher are mounted right up against the frame like this   

The down bags on the tag have a 3" spacer between them and the frame, like this   

Does anyone know why the tag has a spacer like that? I would like to take it out and gain 3" of ground clearance when it's up so it's easier to back up hills. As you can see the tag is pretty far behind the drives so it doesn't take much of a hill to be a real problem.    and yes they are both the same make and model axle.

[Rawze]

It may have been done to increase the weight ratio on the one with the spacer when the axles are down?.

[Dtruck]

This is done to make up for #1 not being right axle for application, #2 this may be a manufacture recommended adjustment to fit this trucks frame height. #3 they may have upgraded bags from regular straight bags to those that look like banjos. A lot of times when you see this you also see a spacer between the truck frame and where the main frame of lift axle rides on frame, which lowers the whole unit not just the air bag part. Is that a 255 tire? Cause you could try running a smaller tire also but 255 are about as small as you get. You could try jacking truck up the amount of spacer even a little past and see if axle has enough droop or room to run without spacer. I would also try to contact the lift axle manufacture to see what its recommendations or specs are for that particular unit. Hope this helps you out.

[tree98]

(04-17-2018 )Dtruck Wrote:  This is done to make up for #1 not being right axle for application, #2 this may be a manufacture recommended adjustment to fit this trucks frame height. #3 they may have upgraded bags from regular straight bags to those that look like banjos. A lot of times when you see this you also see a spacer between the truck frame and where the main frame of lift axle rides on frame, which lowers the whole unit not just the air bag part. Is that a 255 tire? Cause you could try running a smaller tire also but 255 are about as small as you get. You could try jacking truck up the amount of spacer even a little past and see if axle has enough droop or room to run without spacer. I would also try to contact the lift axle manufacture to see what its recommendations or specs are for that particular unit. Hope this helps you out.

I lift the back end up and drop the axle, it won't hurt the bags? There isn't any kind of a stop on it to keep it from over extending.