Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Beyond the Sweepstakes Hype:
Inside Hodson Motors

Thirty minutes outside the chaos of SEMA, Las Vegas suddenly goes quiet. The neon fades, the traffic thins, and the air shifts from frantic to still. And tucked into a half-acre on the edge of the desert—shop doors open, classic trucks lined like a steel museum of things America used to build—is where one of the most fascinating corners of the modern automotive world is happening.

This is Hodson Motors. This is where Riley Hodson gives away trucks for a living.

Not gimmick giveaways. Not dealer promos. Not “tag three friends and win.”
Real trucks. Real winners. Real transparency. A model built on trust, wrenching, and the kind of grit you only get from someone who has spent a decade elbow-deep in squarebody wiring harnesses.

In this week’s episode of The MuscleCar Place, Rob and Kirk left the noise of the convention center and drove straight to Riley’s property—because if you really want to understand the sweepstakes world that’s taken over your social media feed, you need to hear it from the guy who’s doing it right.

Riley never set out to build a sweepstakes empire. He came home from two years in Honduras to find his dad suddenly buying and collecting classic trucks. What began as a father-son hobby—crew cab Fords, lifted Chevys, full-size Jeeps—started gaining traction online. Without trying to “build a brand,” Riley built a following. Without pitching himself as an influencer, people simply trusted him. And then came the moment everything changed: the unsellable orange Jeep J10 Honcho. He had it listed at a fair price. Nobody bit. A follower suggested the Diesel Brothers-style giveaway model. Riley did his homework, his wife Deidre handled the e-commerce, they sketched a few shirts, launched a website—and their first giveaway lost money. Their second lost money too. But the sales volume told a bigger story: the model could work. It just needed trust. And trust only comes from actually giving the trucks away.

Six years later, the trust is there. The winners are real. The business is thriving. But Riley refuses to paint it as magic. Some giveaways soar; some fall flat. Some builds fight him for weeks; others practically finish themselves. He’s honest about the math, the risk, the sleepless nights, and the simple, stubborn love of classic 4x4s that keeps the whole thing moving forward.

Listening to him talk shop is like opening a time capsule. He can decode a squarebody axle from a glance and build a custom-cummins-swapped monster while explaining why a bone-stock Toyota pickup might sell just as well. He rewires trucks not because it’s glamorous, but because he can’t stand leaving a rat’s nest under someone’s dash. He knows that the people who enter his sweepstakes aren’t just buying merch—they’re buying confidence that Riley knows what he’s doing and won’t disappear after they click “checkout.”

And maybe the most refreshing part? He tells every winner the truth:
“You’re not just winning a truck. You’re winning a hobby.”

Old vehicles need love. They create to-do lists. They demand patience. And if that makes someone grumble, Riley’s answer is simple: sell it to someone who understands the joy of driving something with soul.

The conversation is an honest, funny, deeply transparent look at a world most enthusiasts have only seen from the outside. And for a muscle-car audience, it hits home more than you’d think. Because nothing—nothing—looks as good next to your muscle car as the right classic 4×4 truck or SUV. That’s why so many listeners end up checking out Hodson Motors after hearing this episode.

Riley isn’t running a scam. He isn’t running a hype machine. He’s running a small, passion-driven, wildly transparent operation out of his backyard—and doing it better than the big players who rely on smoke and mirrors.

Go listen to the interview. Go meet Riley through his own story. And then, yes, go visit HodsonMotors.com and enter the next giveaway.

Because after hearing what goes into these builds, you may find yourself picturing your muscle car parked next to something lifted, square-shouldered, and absolutely dripping with nostalgia.

And if one of Riley’s dream trucks ends up in your driveway?
Well… that’s one hobby worth winning.

This interview sponsored by our pals at National Parts Depot –
your premier source for muscle car restoration parts!