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

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

The primary patent submitting titled “Extendable Cargo Mattress Ground” describes a system of movable flooring sections that may permit the mattress flooring 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, based on the doc, which additionally mentions a bit that slides straight out as a chance.

Patent picture of Ford extending cargo mattress flooring with steps and cut up tailgate

The extendable mattress flooring might 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 flooring to function bed-wall extensions. They may additionally open 180 levels to create a piece area, full with device hooks and auxiliary lights on the insides of the tailgate halves.

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

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

Patent picture of Ford ramp system for extendable mattress flooring

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

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