Manoli Katakis 
While the world awaits with bated breath for the all-new 2021 Ford Bronco, as well as its Ford Escape-based little brother, there’s been rumors of late that we will soon enough see a Ford Bronco pickup truck, as well. This adds credence to allegations that Ford Motor Company plans on launching an entire Bronco family, even a sub-brand, of vehicles. All of which will be positioned and engineered to tackle the trails, and bottle the lightning that is the off-road truck and SUV craze that’s been building lately. Trademarked names include Bronco Big Bend, Bronco Outer Banks, Bronco Adventurer, and Bronco Sport. Ford Bronco Scout, which is the best sounding name if you ask us, has curiously been abandoned.
At any rate, that’s a lot of nameplates for just one vehicle to bare. We don’t know what the Ford Bronco pickup will be called, but we at least have a clue on what sort of features it may have when it hits the market thanks to a patent drawing that’s been making waves lately.
The images show a removable roof from the cab of a pickup truck, and not an SUV like previous patents assumed to be for the Ford Bronco. So, what do we have here?
According to Patent Swarm, the Ford Motor Company patent is for “vehicles that are equipped with one or more removable roof cap assemblies. Exemplary roof cap assemblies include a roof cap and a mounting system with one or more self-aligning brackets configured to self-articulate into alignment with one or more receiving brackets that are mounted to the vehicle.”
If we tie in this patent image with the reputable report that a Ford Bronco pickup truck is on the way, then it means that the upcoming midsize truck will likely have a removable roof panel in some form or another. At the very least, it could be a removable top for the next-generation Ford Ranger, which is expected to the market as soon as 2022. This could also mean that the American midsize truck customer may soon have two topless trucks to choose from, with the other being the readily available Jeep Gladiator, and its signature party tricks adopted from the Wrangler.
