diff --git a/user/src/com/google/gwt/user/server/rpc/impl/ServerSerializationStreamWriter.java b/user/src/com/google/gwt/user/server/rpc/impl/ServerSerializationStreamWriter.java
index 56e6839892..bc9e528684 100644
--- a/user/src/com/google/gwt/user/server/rpc/impl/ServerSerializationStreamWriter.java
+++ b/user/src/com/google/gwt/user/server/rpc/impl/ServerSerializationStreamWriter.java
@@ -345,7 +345,8 @@ abstract void write(ServerSerializationStreamWriter stream, Object instance)
    * This exists to work around a Rhino parser bug in the hosted mode client
    * that limits string node lengths to 64KB.
    */
-  private static final int MAX_STRING_NODE_LENGTH = 0xFFFF;
+  private static final int MAX_STRING_NODE_LENGTH =
+      Integer.getInteger("gwt.rpc.maxStringNodeLength", 0xFFFF);
 
   static {
     /*