Gen-Y Phantom X Adjustable 2-Ball Mount - 2-1/2" Hitch - 16K - 10" Drop

Video Transcript for Gen-Y Phantom X Adjustable 2-Ball Mount Review

Hi, everyone. Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're gonna be taking a look at these GEN-Y PHANTOM-X adjustable ball mounts. You are gonna have two different ball sizes and a pintle lock for your lunette ring trailers. They're gonna come for your 2 1/2-inch hitches and have a couple of different drop sizes. With us today we have the five inch drop, the 7 1/2-inch drop, but you can also find it available in a 10 inch drop.

And those can all be flipped around to a rise position. Let's check it out. Now all those different drop options for the ball mounts here are gonna be the exact same in terms of the hitches they work with and the weight capacities. So if you're looking to pick between one or the other, it's really just gonna come down to the drop matching up your truck to your trailer or trailers. That's a big advantage of having an adjustable ball mount is the fact that you can adjust to meet these wherever your trailers sit.

So if you're towing a variety of different trailers, you can always be towing level. And depending on the range of trailers, you might need a wider range of adjustment. So the only way they're gonna really vary is the stacked receiver design. That's how they adjust. You can see the smaller one we have here today has three stacked receivers.

So all you have to do to make adjustments is pull your pin and clip, move the ball out and into one of the stacked receivers to adjust that. And for the smaller one, like I said, it's got three stacked receivers. For the slightly larger one, the 7 1/2-inch drop, that's going to be four stacked receivers. And the 10 inch drop is going to have five stacked receivers. So with all that in mind, you can pick which one's gonna work best for you and your setups.

That ability to move the ball up and down the platform here is great for height adjustment, but it's also how we switch between the 2 5/16-inch ball and the 2-inch ball. Now these are gonna have slightly different weight capacities. The two-inch ball here having a weight capacity or a gross towing weight, that's how much weight it can pull, of 12,000 pounds. And the 2 5/16-inch ball having a gross towing weight capacity of 16,000 pounds. Now as far as the tongue weights go, it's going to be a 1600 pound tongue weight for that 2 5/16-inch ball. And a 1200 pound tongue weight for the smaller 2-inch ball. And we do also have the pintle lock. Right now it's in the retracted position so you don't have to worry about it. You can hook up to a standard coupler just fine, but it's ready to go if we have a lunette ring trailer. All you gotta do is unpin that using the same included pin and clip. Stick it out once that lunette ring trailer is dropped over and re-pin it in place to lock it in. That's gonna be a really unique system. Makes it easy to always have it on hand. You never have to worry about forgetting it 'cause it can just store inside one of these stacked receivers until we're ready to use it. And if you want to use this in the rise position, you will need to remove it from the hitch completely and flip it upside down. Now it's a good time to point out that it doesn't come with a hitch pin. It does come with the pins and clips required to secure the ball and that pintle lock, but the hitch pin is not included. Personally, I think that's okay because I would absolutely recommend upgrading to a locking pin anyway. And if you can just pick out your own from the start, that's a win in my book. There's plenty of options for locking pins available here at etrailer. I'm a personal fan of the etrailer locking hitch pin just because that twist to lock is really nice and secure. And it works great for our 2 1/2-inch hitch. And you probably noticed when we flipped that around in the hitch that the ball mount has two different hitch pin holes. That's going to be to just give you a little bit of extra clearance from your vehicle if you find that there's not enough. They're gonna be spaced one inch apart and retain the same weight capacity no matter which one you use. Now speaking of measurements, we probably wanna check out the center of that hitch pin hole to the center of the ball so we can tell how far our trailer is gonna sit from our vehicle. And from that innermost hole it's going to be 11 3/4 of an inch. So then the other one would be 12 3/4 of an inch. Giving you, I think a pretty good amount of space from your vehicle to your coupler of your trailer. This is a black powder coated steel construction. Powder coat is gonna help it resist rust and corrosion over time, keeping it looking nice and new. Now I'll say around the ball where you're actually hooking up to, that's gonna be a lot more susceptible to scratches and scuffs over time. That's just the nature of ball mounts, especially when towing heavy things. But if you prefer to have something that's a chrome plated ball, you can check out options from B&W. But if you like the powder coated look, you can go with this or maybe an option from BulletProof Hitches. And that actually is a perfect segue to how it compares and stacks up against the competition. Those two options I mentioned before, B&W and BulletProof Hitches both make great ball mounts and are very competitive with the GEN-Y option you see here today. A lot of people down in the shop like all three, and we hear good things about them from people online. But there are gonna be some differences. A lot of people like the B&W because you've got the tow and stow feature, the ability to flip the ball around for storage when it's not in use. Well you can do that with the GEN-Y PHANTOM-X here as well. Just by turning this around, you can use the side holes and just flip the ball sideways, back like this for easy storage when it's not in use. You do have to line that hitch pin hole up. But once that's done, it's flipped around and it's less of a kicking hazard when you're walking around your truck. I do think the B&W sits a little bit more flush, maybe it looks a little nicer, but this one still has that function. And for the BulletProof Hitches options, a lot of people like those because of the wide range of different accessories you can use it with. Now for me, I do like this one still a bit better because the stacked receiver design allows you to use other accessories still. Whether it's like the pintle lock you see here, which is included with it. Or maybe just a standard two inch by two inch receiver tube accessory, like a bike rack. So if you go out, maybe biking on the weekends, but you don't wanna take your ball mount out of your receiver tube, or you just don't wanna use an adapter to convert that 2 1/2-inch hitch down to a 2-inch receiver tube. You can put your bike rack in one of these stacked receivers, use it for the weekend, pop it out, and be back to using your ball mount on Monday. So if I had to sum up that comparison, I'd say that this is a good mix of both. It doesn't store as compact as the B&W does, but it does still have that feature to be able to keep it a little bit more compact when not in use. And it may not have the same range of accessories as Bulletproof Hitches, but I think the ones that will work with is gonna be a little bit more universal. You don't have to get accessories from GEN-Y. You can just use your existing two-inch accessories and slide it into these stacked receivers. So I think if you've already got something like a bike rack or a cargo carrier or something like that that you want to use, maybe a hitch step, then this is gonna be great because it works with the stuff you already have. And that's really all there is to it. I think it's gonna be a really versatile option for a ball mount. Whether you're looking to just have easy adjustment up and down for different heights of trailers or the ability to quickly switch between a 2 5/16-inch ball, a 2-inch ball and lunette ring trailer, you're gonna have that. Plus you have the ability to utilize those stacked receivers for other accessories without having to worry about removing the ball mount from your hitch. And it's gonna work great for your 2 1/2-inch hitches. Now if you've got a different size hitch, whether it's a three inch or a two inch, or you're just looking for a different weight capacity, then we've got those options here as well. Be sure to check 'em out on our site and find the right one for you. And whether you go with that 10 inch drop or the 5-inch drop or the 7 1/2 in between, you should be able to find the right one to match up with all the different trailers you might be towing and your truck. But that'll do it for our look at the GEN-Y PHANTOM-X ball mounts.