Expedition One is a vehicle and trailer brand headquartered in Ogden, Utah. It was founded in 2004.
Expedition One's founder says his bumpers are harder to build than they need to be. "They're complex. They take more time than they could," James Fonnesbeck told US Manufacturing Report. They are built in an Ogden building shared with the company's sister metal shop.
Fonnesbeck started it in 2004 as a design shop for 4x4 brands, after a sway bar system he designed on a University of Utah grant found no one to license it. Finding a contract shop that built the bumpers properly took about three years, and sales stalled around $1 million. Once production moved in house, they climbed to about $3 million.
In 2017 James and Sarah Fonnesbeck, who co-own the business, spun the metal shop off as its own company. In 2022 he recalled that a decade earlier, the only tube benders nearby were two small companies running really old machines. Powder coating was the one job he most wanted to bring in house.
He says he designs for the driver in the middle of nowhere who can't be worrying about a failure. That driver won't complain about how long the bumper took to build.
Laser Farm Manufacturing, the metal shop spun off from Expedition One, has fabricated monuments for the Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base.
