Ford has a camo-wrapped Bronco bedecked with off-road goodies roaming the streets near its Dearborn, Mich., headquarters. This prototype is wearing a Warn winch, some rooftop add-ons and what appears to be a snorkel on its passenger-side A-pillar.
While it would certainly be cool to see a factory overland package for the Bronco, what we suspect we're seeing here is a collection of factory accessories designed to work with the Bronco's modular body system. The highlight of the build in that regard is the Warn winch up front, which we suspect is in place to highlight one of the Bronco's party tricks. Ford went out of its way to engineer a front bumper capable of receiving a Warn winch without compromising its safety systems. This includes a supplemental program for the Bronco's SRS computers to account for the winch when detecting front impacts that could set off the factory airbags.
These beadlock-style wheels, Goodyear all-terrains and extra ride height give this four-door away as a Sasquatch-based model, and without any photos of the underbody, we have no reason to believe this prototype is running an otherwise-altered suspension or a new powertrain. The elevated roof could be covering a new roof-mounted rack from launch partner Yakima, or even something more elaborate, such as a pop-up roof tent, which would be on-theme for an overlander.
We're inclined to believe that Ford intends to highlight the winch (and the other aforementioned parts) with an accessory-packed offering based on this prototype, similar to what Jeep did with the Wrangler JPP ("Jeep Performance Parts") 20 last year, but until we hear more from Ford, we're left to speculate.
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