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What would happen if you truly focused on an off-road truck for overlanding? A new Nissan Frontier patent shows some wild ideas.
The 18-page patent describes a series of drawings on bringing together two automotive ideas – a Jeep Wrangler like soft top and a Chevy Avalanche or Chevy Silverado EV pass through.
This result would take a body-on-frame vehicle, specifically a light-duty truck per the patent, to a whole new level.
Next-gen Nissan Frontier patent
Starting with the soft top, the patent describes these as removable panels to allow the vehicle to “function as an open-air vehicle or an enclosed vehicle.” The patent states this is similar to an SUV and would allow the owner to operate the vehicle as an open-air truck and a SUV.
The frame of the soft top would attach to the sidewalls of the cargo box frame with either bolts or other types of fasteners. It would be made of a durable, rigid material and consist of a series of crossbars to help support the structure.
On the rear, a panel would be attached to offer a rear window much like a SUV.
Interestingly, the patent has a footnote referring to the Jeep Wrangler soft top on how to remove and install it to the vehicle.
Pass through on a Nissan truck?
Next is the pass through. The patent says the frame, cabin and bed will remain independently mounted and not to each other like a unibody construction.
A unibody construction doesn’t allow as much twist when you are off-road and the weight in the bed causes additional stress on how the cabin and bed are connected.
How do you get around that? Nissan proposes adding an weather-tight elastic seal (#20 below) that “movably connects the cabin and the cargo box and covers the gap.” You can see it
The gap would be the space between the bed and cabin. It is often just a few inches.
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With this elastic seal in place, a driver or passenger could pass through the cabin to the bed area as needed or wanted.
Keeping the body-on-frame design, the light-duty truck could avoid “body damage when the cargo area carries a large payload.” Also, it would still move and flex independently for off-road usage.
The bottom line
This is certainly a very interesting idea that would marry two often well-liked features into one vehicle. It would also allow for some additional versatility to allow owners to use their truck in different ways.
What do you think?
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