6.5 degrees seems to be the norm around here. Plus or minus half a degree.

Throw some superbands on there. You'll knock the ball through the back of the machine and the wall behind it.

Sell me your LOTR and you wont have to worry about it anymore

Captain Obvious speaking: have you checked the alignment on the ramp and made sure the magnet is working?

I noticed I was having a hard time hitting the ring on yours the other day diddy. I thought I was just having a terrible game ;P

Have you rebuilt the flipper mechs recently?

My LOTR had upgraded coils when I bought it from the previous owner, but the flippers were still fairly weak and would fade very quickly. The flipper mechs probably hadn't been rebuilt in several years. When I rebuilt the mechs, installed new EOS switches, and cleaned/gapped the flipper button switches on the cabinet, the shot strength improved dramatically. Now ring shots are a breeze.

Also check your spinner plate to ensure that it isn't mushroomed at the bottom. If the spinner plate is deformed, it will create a lot of drag, slowing down balls entering the ring ramp.

I'm at 6.5-7 with upgraded coils, only time ring shot is hard to hit is during DTR, it's as if the game knows not to let my ball through.

Good point...I once had a problem where the spinner wasn't hanging completely straight up and down. If it's on any sort of angle where the bottom is hanging more towards you than the top, it won't allow the ball to get up the ramp. The fix I was told was to *gently* pull the spinner towards you because sometimes the wire supports get knocked out of alignment. Just a couple of light tugs, and mine was perpendicular to the playfield again and solved the problem. I wish all fixes were that easy!

The Spinner should be straight up and down. Try to bend it down. If that doesn't work, just replace it. I replaced mine and it's awesome now. Well worth the $.

No, the spinner needs to hang the other way round, get some needle pliers, hold the wire and twist the spinner plate so the bottom is furthest away from you. Should help a lot.

My machine is 1st run and I bought it new, it's been around a long time.
6.7 on my playfield and the bubble shows dead level.
And for me, straight up and down on the spinner works great. As the others stated, just push it down to bend the wire to lower the CG.
Another thing I did was of course upgrading the flipper coils, but I also changed out my flipper mecs. to Williams/Bally parts then put R/C motor aluminum heat sinks around the coils.
Never had another issue.

Happy Flipping

Thanks for this, mine was tilted toward me, adjusted it and it makes it up the ramp every time. Got to DTR tonight, 1:14.

This first picture is exactly what I was talking about. Sorry it took so long to get back to you!

With a waxed pf and snappy flippers I'm afraid I might break things on mine at 6.5

Check the spinner. It may be bent.

Rebuild your flippers per Vid's guide, paying attention to the proper gap. I did this and my flippers are TOO strong with the upgraded coils. I have it pitched around 8 and it still drills ring shots.

Seconding the spinner comment. I replaced mine for $10 because it was smashed and it was like night and day.