Got rear ended this morning - hitch step saved my Mav

luckily, no damage to my Mav. I'm so glad I bought the hitch step to protect the bumper, and it did exactly that. I used to have it installed all the way in for a low profile look but I thought, it might work better if it sticks out farther. There are a few holes for the locking pin and I used the very first one. I'm also glad I got the plastic one. Had it been metal, it might have done damage to the Mav. His plate is pushed in a bit. Other than that, we're both fine. He said he'd pay me for a replacement. We exchanged info, shook hands and parted ways. Then it dawned on me, I didn't get his f'ing number!

Hitch Step https://a.co/d/epKbl7G

Hitch step did it's job.

Off with his head!

Idiot that hit you was probably staring at some stupid screen at the time.

So glad you posted this since others have said a hitch bumper would damage the Maverick if rear-ended. A lady in a brand new Mercedes, on her cell phone, hit me hard enough it took out her front grill and the hitch step punctured her radiator when rear-ending my Element a few years ago. Another lady did thousands of $$$'s to her Lexus plastic front bumper, when bouncing off my hitch bumper at a red light.

Neither time did I suffer any damage. Rubber bumper is much safer since it absorbed some of the energy, verses a steel one that just transfers the energy to your vehicle, and rubber ones are cheaper to replace. I have the same one as the OP and would highly recommend this Amazon version...half the price of any others I've seen. A hitch bumper is not going to prevent a big hit damage but will minimize a minor rear end hit.

If you're planning on installing a Hitch Bumper the only issue to look out for is having a garage long enough to the Maverick fit since a hitch bumper will add 3 to 6 inches to the length of the truck to close a garage door.

I was going to buy one before, but I thought they covered up the license plate. Is there any part of the plate blocked? I do want one.

You can see he had his phone on his right hand and not paying attention.

Good thing you all moved to the side of the road as to not impede the flow of traffic for others out on the road!

Ozarkbeard said:

Idiot that hit you was probably staring at some stupid screen at the time.

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It's not probably, they were. You can see them look up from their phone after impact, then put it down.

Edge Haley said:

So glad you posted this since others have said a hitch bumper would damage the Maverick if rearended. A lady in a brand new Mercedes took out her front grill rear-ending my Element a few years ago. Another lady did thousands of $$$'s to her plastic front bumper on her Lexus when bounding off my hitch bumper. Neither time did I suffer any damage at all. Rubber bumper is much safer than a steel one and cheaper to replace.

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I had someone do the same to me at a drive through. No hitch step. No visible/structural damage. You could see on their bumper the outline of the hitch. It was just the right shape and one of those things. Besides, at this speed, it's not really worth the insurance claim plus it stays on the vehicles record which counts against you if you ever sell it. It shows as an "accident" even though it barely scraped a piece of plastic. Sucks, but that's the way it is now. Insurance is just looking for ways to jack your rates up (and most went up or will go up this year anyways). Same with CarFax stuff. It's nice to see the history but RIP any resale.

So OP, if they are not worried about, I wouldn't be either. Don't jack your insurance up or your vehicle's history for something that is likely cheaper to replace than a deductible (because most people have outrageous deductibles). Thankfully the Maverick has a black plastic bumper that doesn't need paint either. So if you do get a scratch or something and you want to replace it... it's a couple plastic clips, a 10 minute YT video, 2 hours of cussing and you are GTG. But it is nice the hitch worked out for you here! Just food for thought overall...

I'm not worried about it. There's no damage to my Mav other than the broken hitch step. Already have another one on order.

Krrr said:

I was going to buy one before, but I thought they covered up the license plate. Is there any part of the plate blocked? I do want one.

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Here's is what it looks like directly from behind. It does obstruct the plate of you are looking at it from the left side of the truck.

BoboysTruck said:

Here's is what it looks like directly from behind. It does obstruct the plate of you are looking at it from the left side of the truck.

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Can we talk about that mini-van on dubs in the background lol.

When you gotta pick the kids up from soccer but still need to sit pretty.

They even painted the calipers

That Sienna is gorgeous. I had one too, a 2010. It didn't look that pretty though. It had 465k miles when I got rid of it. It developed a head gasket problem. If it didn't, I'd still be driving that. I'm glad it finally quit though. The Mav is awesome. It's getting almost twice the mpg the Sienna did.

Yep I get it. Who ever hits me is not going away un damaged.