Tag: Utility Trailer

Hi, I am Aaron with Badger Utility. Today we are going to be talking about checking ride height on a Hendrickson Air Ride Suspension. I am going to show you two different methods; using a tape measure and using a Hendrickson Air Ride Gauge. We will first start with the tape measure and then we will follow up with the Hendrickson Air Ride Gauge.

The first thing you are going to want to do is go to the left front corner of the suspension and you are going to find the identification tag. That is going to tell you the correct ride height on the trailer. It is going to be two numbers followed by an R H. The RH stands for ride height. In this case it is 16RH, 16 inches is the correct ride height for this suspension.

Now we are up under the trailer here and we are going to be measuring from the center of the axle to top of the airbag mount, also known as the bottom of the sub frame. We will take our tape measure and go right from there to the center of the axle. And see right at the center of the axle there we have 16 inches for our ride height.

This is the Hendrickson trailer ride height gauge, and this compensates for the size of axle tube you have. And how to set this gauge up is first you need to find out if you have a 5-3/4″ or 5″ axle. If you have a 5-3/4″ rotate it around and set it to your correct ride height. In this case we have a 5″ axle so we will use the white numbers. We will set it right to 16″ and snug it down. We set it underneath the sub frame and on top of the axle. We place it right here at the bottom of the sub frame right where the top of the air bag mounts to. As you can see we have 16 inches.

Now if you suspension is set too high, this gauge will not fit in snug. As you can see it is a little bit loose. And just like on the tape measure method, when you measure it is not at the center of the tube for 16 inches. Right now we are at about 17 inches.
Adjusting the ride height is fairly simple. All we do is undo the bolts at the bottom of the bracket and lower it to go down with the suspension or raise it to go up. Once you find the spot where you need it, you can just undo the two bolts in the linkage and adjust it accordingly either taller or shorter. Once you find the correct setting and your linkage is adjusted properly, go ahead and recheck your ride height.

As you can see, setting the trailer ride height is fairly simple with either using the ride height gauge or the tape measure method. Setting the trailer ride height to the correct height is crucial for long lasting trailer performance and a smooth ride down the road.