Lucas Bell 
To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a new SUV as highly anticipated as the upcoming Ford Bronco off-road SUV. The return of the off-roading nameplate marks the end of a 23 year hiatus, with fans of the model patiently waiting on more information from Ford. That information has been hard to come by, as FoMoCo is keeping their cards close to their chest, but that hasn’t stopped the media from doing some digging. We’ve reported on a number of United States Patent and Trademark Office filings completed by Ford that we suspect pertain to the Bronco, and now we have another interesting one to share.
According to images first posted on AutoGuide’s All Ford Mustangs page, the upcoming Ford Bronco may feature a removable roll cage. From what we can gather from the USPTO images, it appears that the B and C pillars of the cage are connected to the window line of the SUV, in a design that allows them to be easily removed from the lower section of the vehicle. This would allow the Bronco to have a totally open-air driving experience, similar to that of the original Bronco roadster from the late 1960’s. With all this talk of removable body pieces, the Jeep Wrangler obviously comes to mind as the Ford Bronco’s main competitor. While the Wrangler allows you to take all sorts of things off of it, the “roll cage” part of the vehicle frame is not one of them.
While we aren’t sure what Ford will have to do to make this design comply with safety standards, they have filed another patent with just that in mind. Along with the aforementioned patent filing is a set of images that detail a removable seat belt pillar, which will bolt into the mounts for the Ford Bronco’s removed roll cage. While we know that these patent filings don’t guarantee anything, we love that Ford is looking at Bronco features from the past to help inspire the upcoming SUV.
