Ford loves putting Easter eggs on its vehicles, from the Mustang logo etched into the pony car’s windshield to a Baja 1000 checkpoint map on the F-150 Raptor’s bed graphics. The new 2022 Ford Bronco Everglades is no exception, and folks are already going over the SUV with a fine-toothed comb. AutoPacific analyst Robby DeGraff has our favorite Twitter take yet: the fender graphic has a built-in ruler to help drivers measure water fording depth.
The Bronco Everglades overtly proclaims its namesake national park’s topographical map on that bodyside accent, but if you look close, you can see little horizontal notches in the vinyl that show the car’s paintwork beneath. These cutouts are spaced a few inches apart and could theoretically be used to measure water depth when fording a small body of water, and their placement should make them relatively easy to see from the side windows. We’ve emailed Ford to see if this was an intentional move or merely a happy accident, but we can’t imagine it’s the latter.
Unlike some automakers that seem to discourage water crossings, Ford is happy to brag about the new Bronco variant’s impressive capability in that regard. Engineers relocated the Everglades’ differential, transmission, and transfer case breathing tubes to provide an extra 3 inches of water fording capability relative to other Broncos for a total of 36.4 ticks of the tape. The Everglades also has a distinctive intake snorkel that helps supply the engine with clean, cool air in dusty, snowy, or – you guessed it – wet conditions, and the inlet can face either forward or backward depending on need.
It must be said (at the very least so you don’t sue me) that the Everglades’ water fording depth is in ideal conditions, so off-roaders should still avoid fast currents and muddy substrates. Furthermore, one should always thoroughly inspect and measure any water crossing before setting out.
If you still manage to muck it up after all that, the Bronco Everglades has a standard 10,000-pound Warn winch with 100 feet of synthetic line to help salvage your day in the muck – or to pull out a sinking fellow motorist who didn’t make sure their rig would make the crossing.
