diff --git a/runtime/rastrace/method_trace.c b/runtime/rastrace/method_trace.c
index 6f06712e937..87b50bde8c3 100644
--- a/runtime/rastrace/method_trace.c
+++ b/runtime/rastrace/method_trace.c
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@
 #undef UT_MODULE_UNLOADED
 #include "ut_mt.h"
 
-#define DEFAULT_STRING_LENGTH 128
+#define DEFAULT_BUFFER_LENGTH 128
+#define DEFAULT_STRING_LENGTH 32
 
 static void hookRAMClassLoad(J9HookInterface** hook, UDATA eventNum, void* eventData, void* userData);
 static void traceMethodArgInt (J9VMThread *thr, UDATA* arg0EA, char* cursor, UDATA length, char* type); 
@@ -483,10 +484,10 @@ traceMethodArgObject(J9VMThread *thr, UDATA* arg0EA, char* cursor, UDATA length)
 
 		if (clazz == J9VMJAVALANGSTRING_OR_NULL(vm)) {
 			/* string arg */
-			char stringArgBuffer[DEFAULT_STRING_LENGTH];
+			char stringArgBuffer[DEFAULT_BUFFER_LENGTH];
 
 			J9InternalVMFunctions const * const vmFuncs = thr->javaVM->internalVMFunctions;
-			char *stringArgUTF8 = vmFuncs->copyStringToUTF8WithMemAlloc(thr, object, J9_STR_NULL_TERMINATE_RESULT, "", 0, stringArgBuffer, DEFAULT_STRING_LENGTH, NULL);
+			char *stringArgUTF8 = vmFuncs->copyStringToUTF8WithMemAlloc(thr, object, J9_STR_NULL_TERMINATE_RESULT, "", 0, stringArgBuffer, DEFAULT_BUFFER_LENGTH, NULL);
 
 			if(DEFAULT_STRING_LENGTH < strlen(stringArgUTF8)) {
 				j9str_printf(PORTLIB, cursor, length, "%.*s@%.32s...", (U_32)J9UTF8_LENGTH(className), J9UTF8_DATA(className), stringArgUTF8);