Video Transcript for Breaking Down the Curt Adjustable 2-Ball Channel Mount

Colin: What's going on guys It's Colin here at etrailer, and today we're going to take a look at the Curt Adjustable Height 2-Ball Channel Mount. Now this is a ball mount that's available in three different sizes. Right now we have the 2 1/2" hitch version, but it's also available for 2" hitches and for 3" hitches. One thing to keep in mind is that the specs, as far as the rise and drop and the weight capacity, are going to be slightly different depending on the size you get. But the overall construction, all the other features are going to be the same. We'll go over the differences with the specs in a little bit.Now this heavy-duty ball mount is going to be great for a wide variety of situations.

Maybe you're towing multiple trailers that are going to be sitting at different heights, you want to make sure you can tow those all at level. And this could also be good for if you have a lifted vehicle, so where you need to drop it down low to be able to get aligned with your ball mount. Now you see our coupler right here is much lower than our hitch receiver is, and that's just due to our lifted truck right here. So the ball mount we have right here from Curt, we we're able to drop it down very low to be able to get our coupler onto our ball mount and keep that trailer fully level. That's just going to make for much safer and easier towing.Now I've gone ahead and raised up our trailer jack as high as we could get it to get this trailer up and simulate an angle to where if we we're using a standard ball mount that was going to be the same height as our hitch, this is kind of what it would look like when we're towing.

This is really not an ideal situation. You can see that there's a lot more weight on the rear axle of our double axle trailer right here. It's going to wear down a lot faster than our front one will, and that's just going to make for not as safe towing as it would if we can get it down and level with the ground. You can see right here that our coupler is not even at the same height as our hitch, and we're still at a very drastic angle. So let's go ahead and lower our trailer jack down and get this back onto our ball mount so we can have our trailer level again.

And you can see here, we've got our trailer level. This is going to be a lot safer when towing for both the truck and the trailer.Now, like I said, you're going to be able to use this ball mount for a wide variety of trailers. We have two different sized balls on here, up top we have the 2 5/16 but if we wanted to we could just pull these two pins right here and clips, and we can easily flip it over to use the 2" side. So we'll just take that out, turn it around and then re-insert our pins, and now we can utilize this ball mount for 2" balls. When utilizing the 2" ball, no matter which shank you get, whether it's a 2", the 2 1/2" or the 3" you're going to have a gross trailer weight rating of 10,000 pounds as well as a gross tongue weight rating of 1000 pounds.And when towing with the 2 5/16" ball, your weight ratings are going to change depending on the size shank you get.

We'll run through those real quick, they aren't too different. With the 3" shank it's going to be a gross trailer weight rating of 21,000 pounds and a tongue weight rating of 2,100 pounds. Go down to the 2 1/2" hitch, a gross trailer weight rating of 20,000 pounds and a tongue weight rating of 2000 pounds. And then down to our 2" version, that's going to be a gross trailer weight rating of 14,000 pounds and a max tongue weight of 1,400 pounds.Now I've been working with this ball mount all day, and it honestly has been one of the more heavier duty ball mounts that I've worked with here at etrailer. It's got that very nice thick steel construction with a black powder coat finish that's going to hold up over a long period of time for rugged use, it's going to be around for the long haul. One thing I do want to point out is that if you are planning on just towing every so often, maybe just a couple of jet skis during the summer when you're going to the lake, this is probably going to be a little bit of overkill for you. So if you're still interested in the ball mount itself, Curt does make smaller versions of this that you can get that way you're not really buying more than what you need. However, if you're a landscaper, a carpenter or just someone who's frequently towing a lot of different trailers, this is going to be a really great option for you.Now, center on center for each hole the adjustment point is going to be 1" all the way up and down it. So that means if you just need to adjust up or down just one notch it's going to be 1" for each hole you go up or each hole you go down, which is really nice. I've worked with some other ball mounts that don't quite have that small of adjustability. Sometimes it's more than an inch up to upwards of 2" and sometimes you don't need that much, so it's nice to be able to get down to that 1" mark and be able to get your trailer as level as possible.Now if you're new to adjustable ball mounts, you're not quite sure how much rise or drop that you need out of your ball mount, we'll go ahead and give you a tip that you can use at home to figure out how much you actually need. First what we're going to do, you need to get your trailer that you're going to be towing level as possible, and then we'll measure from the bottom of our coupler to the ground. It's going to be about 16" for our trailer right here. From there we're going to measure from the top inside of our hitch receiver to the ground, and that's going to be about 23 1/2" for our application. So what we would do is subtract those two numbers, 23 1/2 versus our 16", that's going to give us about 7 1/2" right there, so that's how much drop we need in our ball mount to keep our trailer level.The ball mount itself, the black portion is going to have a black powder coat finish to help it resist rust and corrosion. Now down here on our ball mount, we've got that same solid steel construction, but we have a zinc coating finish. Again, helps it resist rust and corrosion to be around for the long haul. And what I like about this ball mount, it's kind of minor but we do get the two pins and the pin and clip with our hitch receiver included with our kit, so we don't have to worry about picking any of those up separately. But something I would suggest is picking up a locking hitch pin kit. Curt makes one that's specific for your channel mount ball mount. You'll have a pin right here that you'll replace with a locking pin, and then you'll get a second pin to replace up here with your standard pin and clip that's in our hitch receiver. That'll just provide more peace of mind and more security for your ball mounts.Now one thing I like about this ball mount compared to other adjustable height ones is that it's got an anti-rattle system built into it, I'll show you it right now. We're just going to pull out these pins right here, set them to the side. And on the back of our ball itself is a rubber spacer right here just threaded on, this is what is taking away that noise and that rattling from our ball mount. Let's go ahead and put it back in without that spacer and hear what it sounds like with our pins in. So if we don't have that rubber spacer in, you can see there's a lot of noise in it, a lot of rattling that you might get while you're towing.Now we'll go ahead and pull it back out, put that spacer back on. And what's nice is that the spacer is adjustable so you don't have to thread it all the way down if you want to try to get it a little bit tighter. We can loosen a little bit, right now it's as tight as we can get it. We'll go ahead and loosen it a couple of turns just to get that maximum amount of noise out. Now it's not going to take away all of the towing noise, but it is going to definitely help out a lot. So we'll put the pins back in, might have to push down a little bit to get those pins all the way through. Now from here I'm shaking it just as hard and it's not really making as much noise. It's just going to make your towing experience a lot better, you're not going to hear as much rattling.Now we are going to have two different hitch pin holes so that you can get the one that's going to best work for your application. One thing I do want to point out, you want to make sure it's going to fit into your hitch receiver without making contact with the bumper so we'll go ahead and give you a few measurements. From the center of the outside hitch pin hole to the edge right here of our support gusset, this is going to be 3". If we go from the center of the hitch pin hole right here to the edge right here, that's going to be 4".Now if you find yourself in a situation where you need a rise out of your hitch, whether it's because your vehicle is lower or your trailer is higher, what you can do is pull that pin, pull out your ball mount, turn it 180 degrees and reinsert it and then replace that pin. Within this configuration you can go up much higher to be able to get your trailer level with your vehicle. And what's nice is that you're not losing any of your weight capacity for whichever size you get. Now when it's in the rise position, this is where it's going to get a little bit different between each size ball mount. So for our 2 1/2" version, it's going to have a maximum rise of 8 7/8". If you go down to the 2" size shank you're going to have a maximum rise of 9 1/8", and if you go to the 3" shank you're going to have a maximum rise of 8 5/8".Now in it's dropped position, the maximum amount of drop you're going to have for the 2 1/2" version, which is what we have right here, is going to be 10 3/8". If you go down to the 2" shank you're going to have a maximum drop of 10 1/8", and if you go to 3" shank you'll have a maximum drop of 10 5/8". Now for all three sizes you're going to have an inside width of the channel of 3", and what's nice is that Curt makes other accessories that you can put inside the C-channel if you don't want to use the ball mounts. They make pencil hooks that you can put in here, maybe even a hitch mounted step to assist you with getting in the truck bed.Now I've worked with a lot of different adjustable ball mounts here at etrailer, they all do a great job. This one probably is one of my favorites just because it's got that really sturdy steel construction, I know it's going to be there when I need it and be around for the long haul. And I could sit here all day and compare this to all the other adjustable ball mounts we have, but I'm going to go ahead and compare it to one of my other favorites, and that's going to be the B&W Tow & Stow. I'm going to stray away from the weight capacities and the rise and drop, because you're going to be able to find in both brands a rise and drop and a weight capacity that fits your needs. I'm going to focus more on some of the features that define each one.One of the things that I really like about the Curt is that it's got that anti-rattle rubber spacer to help cut down on that noise while we're towing. One of the things that's nice about the B&W Tow & Stow is that when it not in use, you can just slide it underneath and stow it under here so it gives it a much cleaner look, whereas right here we're just going to have our ball sitting here. If we want to remove it, we can remove it and put it on our truck bed, but then that leaves a chance of misplacing it. So there's pros and cons to both.Another thing that is a little bit nicer about the B&W Tow & Stow is that you do have the option to have three different sized balls. If you want, that just increases the amount of trailers you can haul with that one single ball mount instead of having to buy multiple different ones for different situations. Now I'll end with one thing that I think this excels in compared to the B&W, is that the shank itself is solid all the way through with that steel construction, whereas the B&W Tow & Stow does have a hollow shank. Well, thank you all for watching and I hope this information helped you out, but that'll do it for our look at the Curt Adjustable Height 2-Ball Channel Mount.