Pete Weatherly’s background in farming goes back nearly 40 years. He has run a limousine car service, been a mechanic for 25 years, owned and operated a mechanical workshop for ten years, and managed a Stihlshop; now he is building custom Suzuki Jimnys.

He has raced vehicles from 4X4 trialing cars, stock cars and speedway saloons, to a road legal V8 Mitsubishi Pajero and a Mitsubishi Triton 07 diesel, and he has a shelf full of trophies from his exploits building and racing custom trucks.

His latest passion stemmed from growing up on a farm and running the family holding of 880 acres in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. He wanted a tough, agile and economical farm vehicle that wouldn’t break and wouldn’t break the bank – and being Pete he set about building one himself!

The result was the first Farm Mate, and it proved so successful – and so popular – that he now builds them to order for customers throughout New Zealand. All of the range – Farm Mate, Work Mate, Z-Mate and Road Mate – have the same attention to detail that Pete puts into his own vehicles, and offer a safer, warmer and drier alternative to quad bikes as well as a far more cost-effective solution than a fully road legal utility.

Each Mate is built to order by a man who has worked on the land and knows what the man on the land really needs, whether it is bull bars, side bars, tow bars, drop sides or tilt decks. Pete can import and build to order the perfect farm vehicle solution, or he can convert the existing Jimny you have to suit your purpose.