The standard pickup truck mattress is little greater than a field with a tailgate, however Ford is envisioning one thing extra elaborate.

4 latest patent filings from the automaker present methods to make a pickup mattress reconfigurable by extending the size of each the mattress ground and partitions, and by including deployable ramps and steps for simpler entry.

The primary patent submitting titled “Extendable Cargo Mattress Flooring” describes a system of movable ground sections that may permit the mattress ground to increase out previous the rear bumper of a pickup. The ground sections may fold up accordion-style and be stowed on the entrance of the mattress when not wanted, in response to the doc, which additionally mentions a bit that slides straight out as a risk.

 

The extendable mattress ground could possibly be complemented by a split-opening tailgate, with the cut up within the center, Ford says within the doc. The 2 tailgate sections be angled parallel to the prolonged mattress ground to function bed-wall extensions. They might additionally open 180 levels to create a piece house, full with instrument hooks and auxiliary lights on the insides of the tailgate halves.

A second patent submitting titled “Extendable Cargo Mattress Flooring and Cargo Mattress Facet Partitions” applies an identical idea to the mattress’s partitions as nicely. On this instance, the mattress ground nonetheless folds out in sections, however the rear part of the mattress additionally telescopes out. The inside mattress partitions lengthen, taking the taillights and tailgate with them.

Ford has additionally thought-about including a deployable rear step, just like its present pickups, to the extendable mattress ground system. That is described in yet one more patent submitting, which claims these steps may fold up into one of many ground sections described within the earlier two filings. Ford presently hides fold-out steps within the tailgate, however opts to put them within the ground part right here to allow the split-folding tailgate design described within the first patent submitting.

 

Lastly, a fourth patent submitting exhibits how a ramp system could possibly be added to the prolonged mattress ground. On this case, the ramp would slide out from the rearmost part of the ground, stowing in that ground part when not wanted.

Automakers regularly patent concepts that do not make it to manufacturing, however the way in which all the options described in these 4 patent functions had been designed to work collectively, it appears Ford engineers have not less than thought this by way of.