The latch works fine. I haven't had any issues with it not releasing. You can't have very much upward pressure on the ball and be able to release the latch, at least without having to give it a pretty good jerk. It's tricky to do it by myself while raising the front jacks, much easier when my wife raises it while I hold the latch. I'm going to change the cable and make a hook that will hold the latch open while I raise it up off the ball. My original one was the pin version and I much prefer the latch.