Yomper pickup like a Suzuki Jimny mixed with a Defender and a Brat

In the UK and many other parts of the world, there's still a decent market for an workhorse farm vehicle that's low on cost and high on reliability. Samson Engineering in Yorkshire, England decided to step into the breach. CEO Giles Walker said, "When I heard from a lot of people in my local community — many of whom are farmers — about the lack of a suitable small utility SUV on the market, I decided it would be a great opportunity to create one." The result is the Yomper, a pickup built in five standard guises, based on the third-generation Suzuki Jimny that ended production in 2017.

As for the name, it comes from the British Marines sent to fight the Falklands war in 1982. They "yomped" overland, strapped down with wood-frame backpacks called bergans, to Port Stanley to fight the Argentinians who'd taken the port.

Walker stresses that this isn't merely a woodshed conversion, but "as close to a new vehicle as possible." Samson's been in business for more than 40 years, and takes its development and engineering tasks seriously. The company strips the Jimny to its frame rails, sandblasts the rails and applies a protective coating to the frame members and the underbody. Wheelbase options are either the Jimny's standard 88.6-inch span for the Subaru Brat-like Bergan trim or a stretched 108.3-inch span for the Commercial drop-side chassis cab. Payload capacity is 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) for the Commercial trim, 300 kg (661 pounds) for the Bergan. An optional tow hitch is rated to pull 750 kg (1,653 pounds).