Patent ID: 8919796

Claim:
A hitch step adapted for insertion into a hollow vehicle hitch receiver along a longitudinal axis, the hitch step comprising: a tongue having a rear end, the tongue having a vertical height and a width transverse to the axis, the height and width of the tongue being sized such that the tongue may be closely slidably received into the vehicle hitch receiver; a throat region of the tongue formed to adjoin the step body, a forward region of the tongue extending forwardly from the throat region, at least one hitch pin hole formed in the forward region to extend transversely therethrough; the throat region having at least one open external face parallel to the axis, a throat region volume extending vertically from the open face and extending to either an opposed face of the throat region or to a panel, a plurality of vertically disposed reinforcing plates of the throat region extending vertically from the open face and dividing all of the throat region volume into substantially triangularly prismatic cells; and a step body joined to the rear end of the tongue and in use solely supported in cantilever fashion by the tongue, the step body having a rear face, a front face, a left end and a right end, a top surface of the step body extending from the front face to the rear face and from the left end to the right end, the top surface having a width transverse to the axis which is many times the width of the tongue, the top surface adapted to receive a foot of a user at least at a predetermined location displaced from the axis in a width direction, the reinforcing plates of the throat region being so disposed to resist torque around the axis caused by the weight of the user imposed on said location, the tongue and the step body being integrally molded of a polymer compound.