Using the crushing wheels as shown in picture is not allowing the items to continue upon the belt below. The crushed items just sit on the wheel until I break the wheel.

Thanks for reporting, this has been addressed in Patch F

I am to guess this is version 1.18 because I am having the same issue after the server I play on was revamped from 1.16.5 to 1.18.1

The crushing wheels work properly vertical by the way

Which exact version does this occur on?

create-mc1.18.1_v0.4e

As mentioned above by goliath, I remade my crushing wheels vertically and it works.

I can confirm this, it used to be working in 0.4d. After updating to 0.4e today, my production lines stopped working. If this was intensional, please consider adding it to release notes.

This broke a few of my create contraptions.

Forgot to mention, usually there is a funnel on the chest so the items can come out. Just removed during this pic for testing.