Patent attributes
A step assembly for use with a truck load bed has an elongated support member that can be inserted into a hitch receiver. The support is pivotally connected to a step that can be moved into several positions. In a rearward position the step is far enough to the rear of the body of the truck that the step may be stood upon when the tailgate of the vehicle is in an open, lowered position. This allows someone carrying something that is to be loaded onto the truck to approach the truck directly from the rear, to step onto the step and then onto the lowered tailgate. In an alternate, lateral, position the step is adjacent one of the sides of the load box. This allows someone to stand on the step member and reach into the load box to deposit or retrieve some relatively small article when the tailgate is in a raised, closed position. The linkages are constrained to keep a long side of the step perpendicular to the centerline of the truck in both the rearward and lateral positions.
