We’ve anticipated a vehicle that can compete with the Jeep Wrangler while being in the same class for several years, but none has come close.
Sure, you could look to Land Rover for some luxury SUVs that offer the off-road prowess to compete with the Wrangler, but those models are much more expensive than the Wrangler. Thankfully, the Ford brand has a new Bronco in the works to bring an old name back to the market and give us an SUV that will compete with the Jeep on the trails. What we’ve recently seen may give the Bronco a leg up in this competition.
A New Patent Filed by Ford
A recent patent application filed by Ford might be the icing on the cake of the off-road SUV competition. This filing leads credence to the idea that the new Bronco is going to be an SUV that can offer the open-air driving experience when you get behind the wheel. This new patent shows us an SUV that not only allows the roof to be removed from the vehicle but also the roll cage. If you’re familiar with the Jeep Wrangler, you know the roll cage cannot be removed.
How Can the Bronco Roll Cage be Removed?
The patent shows the B and C-pillars, which are both bolted to the SUV at the window line, with the capability of being removed by simply removing the bolts at the pillars. This allows the pillars to be slid out of the body to make it possible for you to have the open-air feeling you want when you drive. There were several SUVs in the 1960s that had this look and gave us the feeling of driving without a cage or a roof, but this does cause a problem with the safety systems.
Fixing the Safety Concerns of the Ford Bronco
If you remove the B and C- pillars, there isn’t anywhere for the three-point seatbelts to attach. Ford has fixed this problem with a removable belt post, which is essentially a pair of shorter pillars that can be slid back into place in the body to allow the seatbelts to be attached. These shorter pillars allow for a third point for the seatbelt, which maintains the safety requirement of a vehicle that’s being sold in the modern era and not one that was offered several decades ago.
Questions Still Unanswered by Ford
While this new patent is a recent one, and the thought of open-air driving is a desirable one, the question of what happens during a rollover has come up. The fact that the Ford Bronco is being built as an off-roader to go against the Jeep Wrangler means that it needs to protect people when they roll up a hill at a bad angle and the vehicle rolls over the top of itself. This is the question that Ford will have to answer before this new system can become part of what the Bronco offers.
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