By Natalie Lozano Trimble
Photography by Thanin Viriyaki
When crews loaded the first 2,700-pound camper shell, designed by Matthew Townsend and molded overseas, onto the F-550 chassis this spring, it was the culmination of two years of research and design, and a significant investment made into the composite molds.
“It was terrifying,” Townsend says.
But his time spent on the details meant it was a perfect fit. Called the Ever Expedition Shell, it’s the first offering from Ever Overland, a company Townsend started because he noticed something missing in the expedition vehicle market.
Fully furnished truck campers are available with price tags reflecting their convenience: about $800,000, depending on the finishes.
A more affordable route is to purchase a do-it-yourself kit, which starts with assembling the shell. The many seams created by a DIY kit increase the amount of thermal transfer, whether that’s letting your heat or cold escape, Aaron Latchaw, the Chief Operating Officer, says. The end result is not as strong or weather-resistant as Ever Overland’s molded product.
Townsend’s design gives DIY’ers and custom builders, often called “upfitters,” a starting point that’s more affordable, without compromising on strength. The shell also includes a door and a 9 square foot skylight. It’s small enough to go anywhere an Amazon truck goes, Townsend says, but also has the ability to go off-road for adventures.
Customers have the freedom to add windows, additional doors and as much or as little insulation as they want. If you want to do minimal insulation because you plan to use it on the beach, you can do that, Townsend says.
Right now, both the high-end campers and the budget-friendly kits take a lot of time. “We’re approaching them, going, ‘You can start to build this immediately,’” Latchaw says.
Ever Overland has already sold one shell to an upfitter in California who picked it up and drove it home this summer. They have several shells headed this way, with more scheduled to be molded.
Townsend hopes to keep a few shells on hand in Fort Worth. His goal is to make it easier for people to enjoy the outdoors, starting with his own family.
A chance meeting on a trip to Utah introduced Townsend to both paragliding and custom camper trucks. He says the trip inspired him to pursue paragliding — “It’s a really beautiful way to experience the outdoors,” he says — and its motorized counterpart, paramotoring, and also to travel the country with his wife and daughter.
When he looked at another popular option, converted vans, not only is their interior about half the size of a camper truck, he says, but their height is too short for Townsend, who is 6-foot-three-inches, to stand up inside.
The aesthetics of the DIY truck camper kits available to build weren’t exciting him, either, Townsend says, so he approached the problem like an entrepreneur.
He and his wife have launched and sold several businesses, and they have spent time considering different approaches before deciding to mold a shell that others could customize.
“I’m excited to see what people do with this,” Townsend says.
Although Townsend and Latchaw looked for manufacturers based in the United States, the costs were multiple times higher than using a supplier abroad, even with tariffs.
“For me, it’s easier to work overseas,” Townsend says. “I understand how the rules work, and I have a ton of experience.”
More than a decade ago, he designed and built a wooden iPad stand for Roots Coffeehouse, which his wife, Janice Townsend, founded in 2009 and sold in 2022. The stand was a hit, eventually becoming so popular that Townsend was forced to outsource production overseas. In early 2025, he sold the burgeoning stand company to focus on Ever Overland.
The manufacturer Townsend chose to fabricate the Ever Expedition Shell is familiar with large molds, creating them for MRI machine parts and wind turbine blades. Although the shell is molded in separate pieces, a crew will assemble them before delivery.
Townsend says he feels fortunate to be an entrepreneur in Fort Worth, where he and his family have lived since 2016. “I think it would be very hard to pull off Ever Overland somewhere else,” he says. It’s the fourth-largest metroplex in the country, but somehow remains affordable and supportive.
Townsend’s connections to Fort Worth’s coffee community are how he began working with Latchaw, who owns Race Street Coffee.
Earlier this year, Latchaw was wanting to leverage the skills he has honed that have made Race Street Coffee sustainable. He hoped working with someone in a similar stage of life would push him professionally. Townsend needed help creating systems, reaching out to people and setting up a website, all while trying to build out his shell’s interior.
“I’m loving having somebody to bounce ideas off of and at times push back,” Townsend says.
After his camper shell is completed, he plans to test it on a trip with his wife and daughter, with storage space already designated for his paragliding and paramotoring gear. “We have friends all across the country,” he says. “The plan is definitely to get on the road to put some miles on it.”
For specifications on the Ever Overland shell or to purchase one, visit everoverland.com or call 971-279-7510.