I would like to thank the Lippert Scouts program and Curt Hitches for giving me the opportunity to test the new Curt Crosswing 5th wheel hitch. The product arrived with no damage to the shipping carton. Hitch was packed extremely well protected with the Styrofoam packing material. The powder coat finish in good condition with no defects. All mounting hardware included, even new pins for attaching hitch to the bed rails. Instructions were easy to follow with one exception. When determining the hitch head height adjustment, it states to subtract measurement in step 2 from step 1 measurement. There is no measurement in step 1. Assembly was easy as there are only 3 pieces to the hitch. Compared to my current set up, Curt A16 paired with  Curt R20 slider, this is a piece of cake. It took much longer to take the old hitch apart than to assemble and install the Crosswing. The only issue I came across was when I went to install the Upper Weldment on my kingpin it would not go all the way on so that I could install the bolts. On further inspection the hole was not completely round. This was due to 2 of the welds protruding further in the opening. I was able to take a sanding drum attached to a power drill to round the area out and it slipped right in place. Hopefully this will not cause any issues with rust once I apply some spray paint to the exposed area.  Hook up was easy and appears to be really secure. With the offset to the rear it appears to give me more clearance between the front cap and the cab of my shortbed Ram 2500. Coming from using a slider hitch, that was some concern. One issue that I encountered was the torgue spec for the M20 bolt. I do not own a torque wrench rated for 300 foot pounds. Most businesses that rent tools only have torque wrenches rated at 250 foot pounds. I really did not want to purchase one just for this purpose as hopefully I would not need it on a regular basis once it was installed. I finally had the opportunity to tow using the Crosswing, traveling from our home in South Carolina down to Florida. Several things that I observed. We live on a Cul de Sac so I went down to make a U-turn to see how sharp of a turn with our short bed Ram and I would guess that I was able to get at least an 80 degree turn. I previously had a slider hitch, so this is a plus. I also noticed that on the road there was no chucking at all. Overall a good towing experience. My only issue is when I went to disconnect, I could not get it to release. The locking bar was completely disengaged, but I could not raise it out of the hitch without lifting the truck and could not just pull forward without the camper moving forward. I finally just pulled the pins and lifted the hitch out  still attached to the pin box. On my second attempt to disconnect, I ran into the same issue. I had pulled the pins and was lifting the hitch out when it uncoupled as it should. Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I would think once released, you could just pull forward and as long as tge weight was off the hitch that I could just pull forward to disconnect. Will see what happens when we return home. Overall I am very impressed with the hitch. I had been looking at a similar hitch a while back. The Crosswing looks to be a better design than the competitors. Thanks Lippert and Curt for giving me the opportunity to use this hitch.

Posted by Marke Grimsley at 2022-08-09 20:16:10 UTC