Ford suggests a way to transform your pickup truck into a movie theater

Filed in August 2017 and published earlier this year, this patent looks very easy to follow.

Ford's Portable Entertainment Support System for a Pickup Truck Box

Have you always wanted to turn your pickup truck into an outdoor movie theater but have no idea how to do it? Well, you’re in luck, as automaker Ford Motor Company recently secured a patent suggesting a simple way to transform your pickup truck into a movie theater.

Filed in August 2017 and published earlier this year, the patent, titled Portable Entertainment Support System for a Pickup Truck Box, looks very easy to follow. It involves two telescoping horizontal arms stretching between the two inside walls of a truck box. These arms, which can either be steel or aluminum, are installed spaced apart. The first one is placed just behind the driver’s seat and the other near the vehicle’s tailgate.

Both horizontal arms are mounted to the inside walls of the truck box by hooking their ends to an interface plate receptacle like the one below:

Ford's Portable Entertainment Support System for a Pickup Truck Box

A vertical telescoping arm, pointing straight up, is then attached to the center of the horizontal arm near the driver’s seat. To that vertical arm, a separate horizontal arm is connected to which a projector screen can be affixed.

Ford's Portable Entertainment Support System for a Pickup Truck Box

Meanwhile, a projector and a pair of speakers are mounted perpendicularly to the horizontal arm near the vehicle’s tailgate.

Ford's Portable Entertainment Support System for a Pickup Truck Box

The photo below shows how this mini project would look like without the projector, projector screen, and the speakers.

Ford's Portable Entertainment Support System for a Pickup Truck Box

Ford writes in the patent that this is just one of the many ways to turn a pickup truck into an outdoor movie theater, pointing out that the materials and equipment used in this presentation are “merely examples.”

As for why Ford came up with this kind of patent, the filing reveals that the company is apparently concerned about how some truck owners customize their vehicles for business and recreational purposes without actually thinking of whether or not they doing it the right way.

“Some pickup truck owners may drill holes in the pickup truck box or use existing holes or other structural features such as edge flanges or the top end of the bed wall to provide interface points for accessories. Drilling holes in a pickup truck box may increase the extent of corrosion, disrupt the integrity, and reduce the strength of the structure,” explains the company. “Using existing structural features to secure objects to a pickup truck box may not meet all of a user’s needs and requirements.”

Source: Jalopnik