TMCP #632: The Full Business of “Give Away Sweepstakes” with Hodson Motors — Riley Hodson on Building, Giving Away, and Growing the World of Classic 4×4’s Sweepstakes
The MuscleCar Place
TMCP #632: The Full Business of “Give Away Sweepstakes” with Hodson Motors — Riley Hodson on Building, Giving Away, and Growing the World of Classic 4×4’s Sweepstakes
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Company
Hodson Motors
Hodson Motors is a business that focuses on modifying trucks and Jeeps, especially older models from the 70s to the 90s. They make these vehicles more off-road capable and unique.
Concept
four by four
A 'four by four' is a type of vehicle that can drive all four of its wheels at the same time. This helps it handle rough terrain and off-road conditions better than regular cars.
Term
lifted trucks
A 'lifted truck' is a truck that has been made taller than normal. This helps it go over obstacles better when driving off-road and allows for bigger tires.
Company
Fanatec
Fanatec makes gear for racing video games, like steering wheels and pedals that help make the experience feel more real. Many people who race online use their products because they are very good quality.
Company
TrackRacer
TrackRacer makes equipment for people who enjoy racing video games, helping them set up a more realistic experience with better seats and frames.
Concept
fab up
'Fab up' means to make or build parts that you need for a project, especially when they aren't available in stores. It's about creating custom solutions.
Part
Kierke seat
A Kierke seat is a special seat used in race cars to keep drivers safe and comfortable. It's built to be strong and light, which helps during fast driving.
Part
MPI wheel
An MPI wheel is a type of steering wheel used in race cars. It's made to help drivers have a better grip and control while driving fast.
Car
Cupra Born
The Cupra Born is a new electric car that is designed to be fast and fun to drive. It’s part of a brand that focuses on making sporty cars, but this one is also good for the environment because it runs on electricity.
Concept
classic crew cab scene
The classic crew cab scene is about people who love and restore older trucks that have extra space for passengers. These trucks are popular among collectors and enthusiasts.
Car
Dodge trucks
Dodge trucks are tough vehicles made by the Dodge brand. They're great for work and are loved by many truck fans.
Car
Chevrolet trucks
Chevrolet trucks are strong and reliable vehicles made by the Chevrolet brand. They're often used for work and are popular among truck lovers.
Car
Jeep J10S
The Jeep J10 is a pickup truck made by Jeep. It's known for being good off-road and has a special look that many people like.
Car
Jeep Wagoneers
The Jeep Wagoneer is a big SUV known for being good off-road and having lots of space inside. It's a favorite among people who like classic vehicles.
Concept
restomod
A restomod is a classic car that has been updated with new parts to make it better to drive. It keeps the old look but has modern features like better engines and brakes.
Part
AMC 360
The AMC 360 is a type of V8 engine that was used in some Jeep trucks. It's known for being powerful and reliable.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that people love for going off-road and exploring. It has a long history and is often talked about because many people have great memories associated with it.
Car
Chevrolet Suburban
The Chevrolet Suburban is a big SUV that can carry a lot of people and stuff. It's been around for a very long time and is popular for families or anyone who needs extra space.
Part
4L80E
The 4L80E is a type of automatic transmission that helps the vehicle change gears smoothly. It's designed to be very strong, so it can handle heavy loads and towing.
Part
NP 205 transfer case
The NP 205 is a part that helps distribute power from the transmission to the front and rear axles in four-wheel drive vehicles. It has two settings for different driving conditions, like off-roading or regular driving.
Part
261 transfer case
The 261 transfer case is another part that helps send power to the wheels in four-wheel drive vehicles. It's newer and lighter than some older models, making it more efficient.
Part
Ford Dana 60
The Ford Dana 60 is a strong part that connects the wheels to the vehicle, making it great for heavy-duty use and off-roading. It's often chosen for its ability to handle tough conditions.
Part
roof rack
A roof rack is a frame that sits on top of a car to hold extra things like bags or bikes. It helps you carry more stuff when you're traveling.
Company
KC Lights
KC Lights makes special lights for cars that help you see better when driving off-road at night. They're often used by people who like to go on adventures in their vehicles.
Car
K5
The K5 is a type of SUV made by Chevrolet that is great for off-roading. It was built for tough conditions and has a strong reputation for being durable.
Term
thirty sevens
'Thirty sevens' means the tires are 37 inches tall. Bigger tires help vehicles drive better on rough or uneven ground.
Car
Toyota Land Cruiser
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a fancy SUV that can go anywhere, even on rough roads. People like it because it lasts a long time and is very comfortable to drive.
Car
Dodge Ram
Cummins is a brand of diesel engine that is often used in Dodge Ram trucks. The second generation refers to the models made between 1994 and 2002, which are known for being strong and reliable.
Car
Chevrolet C30
The Chevrolet C30 is a strong pickup truck designed for heavy work. It has two wheels on each side at the back, which helps it carry heavier loads more safely.
LIVE
The muscle car place, online podcast, episode number 632.
This week, Riley Hodson from Hodson Motors gives us a rundown on the complete and total
business of the vehicle's sweepstakes game.
Now, Hodson Motors stays in the lane of stuff he likes, and that his shop does well, four
by four trucks.
But the business of the sweepstakes is something you have been peppered with on multiple
fronts, I'll bet, and I'm sure you've seen a few people that you don't recognize
doing them, and then several more that you do, like Mike Finnegan and David Fryberger
and Riley Hodson.
This is an honest and complete look at the business, soup to nuts, with all the truth
you want to hear, and all the truth that's hard to hear.
And they started to pick up steam and do better and better and better.
And we still, to this day, we were talking about, I still will have stinkers that
don't make money, and they are not foolproof.
They're always a risk.
You know, there's always a gamble on my part, but it's a fun gamble.
This is the Muscle Car Place online podcast, brought to you by National Parts Depot.
This is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love American muscle cars.
If you're buying, selling, restoring, even racing them, this is the place for you.
Now, here's your host, Rob Kibbe.
Yes, indeed, I am Rob Kibbe, and welcome to the Muscle Car Place podcast.
Here we are.
My goodness, it's happening fast.
The second week of December, 2025, Christmas is less than two weeks away as you hear this.
And we are all settled in for a long winter's podcast, Lane, I know, sorry.
Our guest is Riley Hodson of Hodson Motors.
You four by four enthusiasts know this guy and his company.
Their niche is four by four modded trucks and Jeep 70s through 90s, lifted trucks, stuff
like that.
Super cool.
Well, that's the genre of vehicles that Riley excels at.
His real business, as he'll tell you here now, is vehicle sweepstakes.
And that's something he has really learned how to do after failing at it for a little while,
and he'll share all that.
Now, Kirk Antron introduced me to Riley.
We had a fantastic discussion on the business of this during the SEMA show.
So we actually left the SEMA show and went over to Riley's property and had a wonderful
sit down.
The interview you hear is edited for length, but not content.
I think we're there an hour or two.
It was amazing.
I mean, he showed us everything.
He loves this business.
He is an open book.
It's working for his company really well.
He shared everything about how this works, the duds, the winners, the risks, the rewards.
He does acknowledge there are scammers out there in this field, and you know that.
But there are trusted people out there doing this too, like Mike Finnegan and Dave
Freiberger.
Chances are that you now get ads for these things in your social media nonstop.
Like, I get them for like graveyard cars.
I mean, just it seems everybody does this and the sweepstakes I get advertised for our
cars I like.
Like there's a Fast and Furious one going right now too.
On the Kibbe and Friends show, though, we have a new Patreon supporter.
His name is Kevin Berg.
We had him on for his $20 monthly supporter call, and it was wonderful to get to
know him.
And then he'd let us know, you know what?
I'm the first guy to win a Mike Finnegan giveaway car.
It's real.
So he walked us through all that.
It was amazing.
You're not going to hear that in this conversation, but it just confirmed to me like
there are successes out here with the people that do this and do it well.
So this is a rare and honest look under the hood of what it takes.
All the truth.
This is a business that interests me, certainly Riley's aware of that.
He did give caution off the air and on the air because, frankly, these things
can go sideways financially if you're not careful.
There's no guarantee of anything.
Those who have won a vehicle, I don't remember if he said this in the interview or not, but
they can become pests later on when they seem to believe they're entitled to more
than they signed up for for a giveaway car.
In the end, though, this is a business that he loves and that he's good at, that
he wants to excel in.
I intend to have a little shorter show for you today.
My son, Dallas, and I, as I let you know last week, we're headed to the
PRI show.
By the time you hear this, we will have already been to the PRI show.
We're just going there for the first day, the Thursday, December 11th day, to make
some connections.
Burn, cue the update.
The Dallas Kidby Racing Legends car update.
I'm not ready yet to announce the 2026 plan for Dallas yet.
There will still be more Legends cars, of course.
But it won't be all Legends cars.
We won't do another season like we did in 2025.
Don't need to.
The next step is to do something, late models and maybe off-road stuff.
There are a couple teams at PRI we are going to go talk to and understand how they do what
they do.
I've been getting some really good advice from Taylor Hull, a long time
friend of the show, Drifter, Racer himself.
I should have him on and do an interview like we're about to do with Raleigh.
He understands this thing inside and out, upside and down, and he's been enormously
helpful to me.
Taylor, I really thank you for that.
What Dallas wants is a chance to race on four wheels and get paid to do it.
Don't we all.
So that's where we're headed.
We're headed to the PRI show and that concludes the Dallas Kidby Racing Legends car update
for this show.
Cue the exit burn.
By the way, okay, the gift he got for his 17th birthday, I'm building him like
a killer sim rig, but I'm doing it somewhat on the, I guess on the cheap.
Over the years, I have bought more and more pieces for him for a sim rig as we go.
And every time I buy a piece, I just buy the best piece I can get.
Most of his sim gear, like the steering wheel, the force feedback wheel, the pedals, the
shifter, the drift, those are all from Fanatec.
The computer is a nicer Dell that we spec'd out for my dad before he died with all
the greatest stuff.
He was going to use it to do flight simulator stuff.
He passed away really before he could really dig into it a whole lot.
So Dallas has been using it for a racing sim.
The gear that we have is great, but his sim rig, like the actual frame that you mount it
all to in the seat and stuff, it's cheap, it's cheap, it was never intended for doing
what we're doing.
I ended up buying a kit from TrackRacer, TRAK Racer.
It's one of their 160 wall kits.
And I'm just going to fab up everything that isn't there that I want or need.
I got his Kierke seat out of his old race car, the one he wrecked.
I got a steering wheel out of his old race car, it's an MPI wheel, drilled it out
to mount it on the Fanatec.
It's sweet, man, it's going to be fun.
So I'm building that here over the course of the next couple of weeks.
I did not get it done in time for his birthday.
The main frame rails that you build the kit off of, they showed up the day before and
it was too late, but there's a small chance that everything I'm about to do here has
even more to it.
But only Santa Claus is going to know that.
I have no idea.
Byrne, do you hear something?
Who is ho-ho-ho-ing out there?
Hmm.
Who knows something?
Who else is, uh, birthed it?
Building an Assembleracer.
Okay, next topic here, Toys for Tots update.
Our Toys for Tots campaign is done and we did hit our goal.
Our goal was $3,000 by December 5th.
Now we didn't actually raise $3,000 in total cash.
We got pretty close.
I don't have the total numbers in front of me here, but we were a few hundred
dollars short of that, but we did hit the goal.
How did we do that?
Well, on December 2nd, I got the triple match text from Toys for Tots.
You never know if these are going to be available.
You never know anything, but on December 2nd, I got the triple match.
I had $2,000 in hand, so I did the deposit right away.
Our $2,000 on December 2nd quickly became $6,000.
The remainder that we got in here, the many hundred dollars that's added to the
pile too.
It would be sweet though if we could actually have achieved the $3,000 in cash donation.
So we're going to do a second donation on December 19th.
If you would sign up at patreon.com.kfshow as a new member or upgrade your membership just
for the month, that would be wonderful.
If you go to themusclecarplace.com and click the shop link, you're going to see some shirts
there that you can buy.
I'm extending the profit donation of all shirt sales through December 19th to the
Toys for Tots campaign.
We won't make a dime off of any shirt all the profits go right to the campaign.
There should be a couple Christmas shirts here, hopefully by the time that you hear this, they've
been approved.
They've been in the queue for a week, but our shirt company hasn't put them on the website
yet.
But hopefully that'll be there.
Please check it out.
Please check it out.
Okay, two more things here before we proceed.
And they're totally personal.
This weekend, my daughter, Noelle, is in the nutcracker.
If you don't know it, the nutcracker is a ballet.
It's been around for a hundred plus years.
She has worked really hard for this.
And she did not get the parts she wanted this year.
That was a humbling thing for her.
It was a frustrating thing for us.
You know, we're her parents and, you know, like call parents, you think your kid's the
greatest.
But this year, she really did put in the work.
And we were really frankly confused because it looks like she's more than capable to
get the parts that she wants.
She ended up getting a principal role as the mouse king.
That's not a point ballet part, which is what she wants.
It's a more principal.
Like she's going to take a bow at the end.
Like she's one of the main actors.
But she didn't want that.
So the good news is she's in a point ballet part in the second half itself dance called
flowers and she's happy about that.
If you're in Ames, Iowa this weekend, please come through.
There are two on December 13th, one on December 14th.
She's a big deal.
It's going to be awesome.
She has to fight the nutcracker and the nutcracker kills her.
So she gets killed three times twice on Saturday, once on Sunday.
Come check it out.
Also, my daughter, Emily, is finishing up her first year at Iowa State, but
her second year in college as a sophomore here.
And at the end of the show, I'm going to play you something from her Christmas
concert.
I like band music.
They played sleigh ride.
And it's awesome.
It sounds like a professional.
It's the Iowa State win on Saturday.
I mean, it's their very top tier band and it's awesome.
You'll enjoy it.
It's very, very fun.
So that'll be how we take the show up.
Alrighty.
Don't forget, every single month, we do have Mr.
Rick Schmidt on from NPD.
And you do have time to ask him questions for our January show.
NPD is back for 2026 in full force.
You can ask Rick anything you like, send in your questions to me, Robert
at themusclecarplace.com.
And of course, visit nationalpartsdepot.com to prove for all your
muscle car parts need because they find the source.
They expect the best.
There is a difference and they've got the goods.
Alrighty.
Up next here is Mr. Riley Hodson from Hodson Motors.
This is the full business on vehicle sweepstakes, soup to nuts.
It might even be a college course.
Enjoy.
The Muscle Car Place weekly podcast interview is brought to you by our
good friends at nationalpartsdepot.
See them through the link at themusclecarplace.com.
Here we are sitting in the world's most unavailable VRBO with Riley
Hodson of Hodson Motors and with Kirk Hansen, Muscle Car Place network
director.
We left the most chaotic scenery to the most peaceful
scenery pretty much.
Yeah.
30 minutes apart.
Hello on earth and the opposite of what is so close.
But Riley, nice to meet you.
Welcome.
Thank you guys for having me.
I'm excited to be here and to do the episode with you.
All right.
We've talked once.
You and Kirk have a relationship.
We do.
And that's how we were introduced here.
But you are the, for better or for worse, like the
truck sweepstakes guy on the internet.
And I wanted to explore why you are the truck sweepstakes
guy and what that means for you, you know, building and buying and
selling trucks and all of that and how it all works because
it's just how algorithms work.
Just talking to you once, I get nothing but like sweepstakes
for giveaways for everything up, down, left, and right.
But first of all, Riley, who are you?
Yeah.
What's your name?
My name is Riley Hodson.
I am a Las Vegas, Nevada born and raised native.
I have been in the classic truck scene for the better
part of a decade now.
I started doing all this stuff, collecting, buying and selling
with my dad just as a hobby about a decade ago.
He and I did nothing like this earlier in my life, but I served
a mission for my church down in Honduras for two years.
And when I came home, my dad had started collecting and he
kind of was like, Hey, I could use your help.
And it all kind of snowballed from there.
This was purely just all hobby for a number of years,
probably five years.
It was all pure hobby as we were buying all sorts of
different trucks.
We were real big in the classic crew cab scene.
So crew cab forwards and Chevy's and Dodges, but also
big in the Jeep scene.
So like the full size Jeeps and the J10s and the
Wagoneers, stuff like that.
We were kind of just searching nationwide for just cool
stuff, big fendered stuff, big tires.
We like those real Tonka truck aesthetics, but after a few
years of doing that and just posting for kicks and giggles
on Instagram, it turned into business for me.
And the rest has been history.
We've been doing giveaways for, we started in 2019.
So we're on year six of giveaways and they're not
slowing down.
It's been pretty fun.
So today we had lunch or snack, you could say with
Mike Finnegan.
Oh, cool.
So I told him that we were coming out here and he's
like, Oh, that's the diesel swap guy with all the
lifted trucks.
And I'm like, Yeah, there's that too.
So you're kind of known as the diesel guy as well.
That's flattering that somebody like Mike Finnegan
knows who I am.
I am not well traveled or I would say networked.
The giveaways are fun and they allow me to buy
and build what I like to buy and build and allow
me to give away things.
And it's really quite fun in that sense that it's
kind of just me and my little world.
We live on the northwest side of Las Vegas and we have
our shop in our backyard.
We live on a half an acre and we've got a nice, a
decently sized shop back there.
One of our bays of our shop is converted to our
giveaway or merch center where we have all of
our inventory and stuff like that.
But that's very cool that Mike knows me and there's
a lot of different giveaway companies out there.
And maybe we would consider ourselves maybe the
biggest giveaway company doing classic trucks on
the regular, but I'd still consider ourselves
pretty small, you know, but classic trucks,
that niche, there are other companies out there
bigger than I who are doing classic muscle
cars like Resto mods are awesome company and
other companies doing diesel trucks like modern
diesel trucks and they're probably larger than
me. But in my niche of classic four by fours,
there's not very many players.
That's not real hard to be the biggest in my
little niche, but it is cool and it is really fun.
So would you consider yourself in the giveaway
space or do you think you're just in the truck
space? I would consider myself more in the
giveaway space than I would be in the
truck space rather than considering myself a
full builder. We do full builds.
It is not the bread and butter.
The bread and butter of my business is giveaways
and that's what I'm good at.
No kidding.
It's doing the giveaways.
You started out loving the trucks and I mean,
you know a lot about truck.
I've just got a year full of an education on
also, and I don't know trucks, muscle cars
and newer. That's our bag.
Right. So you worked with your dad here,
basically curating a collection of stuff
that you guys liked.
Yeah. And I'm going to assume you also sold
some too. So you probably learned how to
sell and you're probably good at selling.
You said 2019.
I think that's what you said.
Our first giveaway was in 2019.
Yep. Why?
That's a great question.
But so again, it goes back to just me and
my dad as a hobby.
We had built this 1981 Jeep J10
Honcho is an orange Honcho.
It was lifted on 35s.
It had a rebuild AMC 360
four speed manual fuel injected.
Very, very cool, really nicely restored
J10 Honcho.
And we drove it all the time.
It was an awesome truck.
I miss it. And the winner of that
truck still has it.
This is six years ago.
He still has it. It's really cool.
But I could not sell it.
It was time to sell it.
I didn't want very much.
I think I had it listed for like $25,000
and for a fully restored four-wheel drive
truck, you know, $25,000 is pretty cheap.
And I just could not sell.
I got low ball offer after low ball
offer and could not sell it.
And one of my followers on Instagram
at this time, I probably had 25,000
followers on Instagram.
Again, just posting purely for kicks
and giggles. We would just post our
day to day life like, oh, this is
what we're building today or this
is what we picked up.
And this is what I'm selling.
It was real nonchalant.
Very, very, very unpolished.
But one of my followers was like, hey,
you should give that truck away.
And I was like, that's not a charity.
I can't give it away.
I was like, no, no, no, like do a
giveaway, like look at the diesel
brothers and the diesel brothers
are a great example because they've
kind of exited the space.
I think they got tired of it.
But they were at the time the
biggest giveaway company.
They have an 8080 who do sports
cars. But these diesel brother
guys from Utah, they had put on a
seminar here in Las Vegas.
And one of my old bosses, Mike,
who's one of my friends and one
of my clients, I take care of
his old Bronco.
But Mike had gone to this
seminar and I knew he had gone.
I was like, hey, can I get the
information? So he was like,
absolutely. So he sends me the
info on it and how to do it
legally, how to do a sweepstakes
legally, because there is a legal
way to do it. And we do it legally
and everything's because you don't
want it to be gambling. You don't
want it to be a raffle, especially
in Las Vegas where we have a
gaming board who would come
after you in Las Vegas for it
being a raffle. So we do it
all legally. So he sends me
all the information. I look into
it and we had a perfect storm.
We had a truck. I had my wife
Diedra, who was pregnant with my
firstborn Ben and she was ready
to be done working, but she had
worked for about three years in
e-commerce. So she had been
doing fulfillment, office
management, online sales,
website, like Shopify website
development, that kind of stuff.
She knew all this stuff. She knew
how to do it all. It was like,
OK, I got the truck and she has
the know how we drew up six
t-shirts and two hats and we
launched our first giveaway. We
did a six week giveaway on
Instagram through Instagram, you
know, we were posting on
Instagram to drive people to
our website and they would go
to our website, they would buy
stuff and for every five bucks
they spent on the website,
they would get an entry into
win the truck and sure enough
that truck went off and we
lost anywhere in the ballpark
of 10 to 15 grand on that first
one. So I'd have been better
off financially just taking
one of those low ball offer,
you know, which isn't that
always true. That's always the
case. A burden in the hand is
worth three in the bush.
But it was like, OK, I think
we did $35,000 in sales, which
after we paid off all the
advertising and the merchandise,
the cost on merch probably
pocketed at the end of that
15 grand. But it was like,
OK, we did 35 grand in six
weeks. That was exciting. I
think this could work. And so
we did another and we lost,
you know, 10 grand on the
next one. We did another and
that one got closer to break it
even. And after four or five
enough people trusted us to
think, OK, these guys are
actually giving them away. It's
not a scam. They're not just
taking our money and running
because that has happened. We
know of several companies that
have taken the money and ran
because they think that this
is a get rich quick scheme.
They think giveaways are one
and done. I can get in there
and I can throw this out
and people are just going to
flock to it. Not the case.
This is a huge business based
on trust, but they got to
trust you. And so after they
had seen four or five and
that I was actually giving
them away, they said, OK,
these guys must be legit.
And they started to pick up steam
and do better and better and
better. And we still to this day,
we were talking I still have
stinkers that don't make money.
They are not foolproof.
They're always a risk, you know,
that's always a gamble on my
part. But it's a fun gamble.
So I know for myself, the way
that I found you was
through the suburban.
How deep was that in your
giveaways? The gray one or
the tan one? The tan one.
The tan one. The tan one was
a big one for us. We gave
away a 1986 Chevy
Suburban 2500 had a 12
Elf Cummins and a four L 80
transmission and an NP 205
transfer case.
No, a 261 transfer case, but
it had a Ford Dana 60
Snowfighter front axle.
So the best front axle you could
get. And we painted it in
modern GMC like
Desert Sand color.
We did the prototype for the
baseline overland roof rack
and there's a couple at SEMA
of these baseline overlaid
roof racks for these suburbans.
I saw one today and I was
wondering what looked like
your product. Yeah, we were the
prototype on that one.
That's a cool KC headlight
roof rack and it was a really
cool truck and it was our
record breaker.
It was a record breaker by
probably 40 percent of sales.
It went off crazy big.
So for me, it was awesome.
But it was also really hard
because it was like how do you
lightning strike twice?
How do we replicate that?
And it took me over a year
to hit that record again.
It had done so well.
So that was a giveaway,
probably let's see, that was
twenty twenty one or twenty
twenty two, I think.
Yeah, I think that was
giveaway, maybe 10 or 12
somewhere in there.
So still in the early stages,
I'm at thirty one.
Yeah.
So the interesting thing with
how I found you was at the
time I just sold my K five.
It was lifted on thirty sevens,
you know, still all stock
running gear and all.
But because I had sold that,
I don't know if Facebook of
Meta had some sort of
algorithm, but your ads
started populating on
my feed.
And then, of course, that
vehicle here, I am sad
because I just sold my truck
was like, oh, I could totally
daily drive that thing.
So that's how I kind of
got involved and found your
product.
That's cool.
That's funny.
Do you work on just customer
cars unrelated to
giveaways?
I do.
I do a couple of customer
builds every year.
I just use them as filler work
and every customer who comes
to me knows that they are
filler work.
They know that they don't
have priority.
Priority goes to the
giveaways first, my dad
second, and then.
Oh, you are very clear
on your lane.
Oh, I am.
You are.
They gotta know.
They gotta know, you know,
I think all your listeners,
if they've worked with
custom shops before,
they understand that
the guys in our industry
are terrible communicators
and really bad at setting
boundaries and really bad.
And people get taken advantage
of, like my dad, who are just
out there trying to get a truck
built, you take advantage
of all the time.
And my last thing that I want
is, number one, the customer
builds are not my bread and
butter.
They could never come in
and I would be fine.
You know, we're making our
money on our giveaways.
That's our business model.
We're open and honest
with all of our customers.
They all appreciate my
openness and my honesty.
And we do things very
transparently.
We pick a winner live.
We use a service that allows
people to verify their entries
after the fact.
We do as much as we can to be
as transparent as humanly
possible.
And so I try to push that
over into customer builds
as well as like, hey,
you got to know that I'm not
starving for you.
And if you want to be here,
that is totally fine.
But you got to know that
there's a pecking order.
And the last thing I want
is for any of those guys
to everything, oh, I got
taken advantage of.
And I've had customer builds
that went awry.
I don't know if my buddy
Jesse would be listening to this.
I did a truck for a guy.
And I have had some go awry
and had to straighten things
out afterwards and say, hey,
I'm sorry, you know, not every
truck is going to be perfect.
And we've had giveaway trucks
that have had issues
after they take delivery
because it's the nature of
classics.
And when we pick a winner,
we let these winners know,
like, hey, you are not
just winning a truck.
You are winning a hobby.
If you don't like this hobby
and sell it to somebody who
does like and understand
the hobby because owning
a classic is a hobby.
You drive it on Sunday
and then you make your to-do list.
We call them dingleberries.
You make your dingleberry list
and you fix them on Saturday
so you can drive it again on Sunday.
Like, and if you don't like that,
that bugs you.
It's not a hobby for you.
And I can give them a truck
in the best possible condition
I can give it to.
I try and fix every single thing
and they've got to still be
willing and ready to wrench.
Now, no one's complaining
because they're winning a free truck.
Yeah.
Our last winner about
he spent 50 bucks.
You know, so for $50,
he won a 1984 Land Cruiser
BJ 60.
Awesome old Land Cruiser.
And so he's not going to complain
if it has issues down the road.
He got it for free.
But I still got to let him know,
like, hey, you're getting a hobby
along with winning one of these trucks.
How do you pick the vehicle?
That is just all whatever I can find.
Are you buying things
that you're going to put your own twist
and touch on?
I try to.
I try to flip.
So are they sometimes I'll buy a truck
that's pretty close to being done.
I try to do eight to nine
giveaways a year next year.
I'd like to do 12 giveaways
one every single month.
But right now I do two months on
and then one month off
to recoup my inventory,
get the shop reorganized
and go back at it again
for two more months.
But I'd like to do 12 a year.
And so it is really hard
to build 12 trucks
between four guys at a shop
and try and crank out 12 trucks a year.
So I try to buy things
that are 65 percent finished.
But for me to crank out 12,
I'm going to try to bump that percentage
up to 80 or 90 percent finished
so I can crank more of these out.
But I have some ways of doing that,
like some people appreciate
a more custom giveaway build
where they want it to have
an engine swap and a transmission swap
and custom paint
and they want those kinds of things.
Some people love.
I call them the blank canvas giveaways
where I'll find a really clean
like fourth gen Toyota pickup,
like the back to the future pickups.
I'll find a really clean pickup like that.
That is just a 22 RE high speed manual.
Clean as could be.
But not much done to it.
You know, pretty stock.
And those will do well
because people love a blank canvas.
They can trust the blank canvas.
They can get parts for a blank canvas.
If I do a custom
common swap into an old truck,
you know, my mounts are custom.
What happens if a mount breaks?
You know, you got to go find a fabricator.
If you win and you're in Kansas,
you got to go find a fabricator
who can get in there and fix my broken mount.
You know, you're not going to ship it back
to Las Vegas for me to fix those kinds of things.
So that's one of the ways
that I'm able to balance this is like, OK,
I'll try and do a blank canvas giveaway
and then a custom giveaway.
And so this one that just passed,
we called it Mellow Yellow is a 72 to 50
on a 2000 Super Duty 7.3 chassis.
Very custom.
My next giveaway is a 1998 Dodge Ram 2500.
It's the most modern truck I'll ever do,
but it is the most bone stock second gen Cummins
I could find four wheel drive second gen Cummins.
They're going up in value like crazy,
but I've just left it as stock
as I can leave it.
And that'll be my blank canvas
giveaway for Black Friday.
And I'll kind of alternate between those to make it work.
So some of the repairs that I've watched you do,
it seems like, do you geek out on electrical work
because it seems like you rewire everything?
Yeah, I am. Or it's just everybody.
I don't want to. Everybody just messes it up.
So back to the hobby between my dad and I.
Wiring is hard for a lot of people.
It's not hard for me.
I don't want to brag or two man horn.
It's just one of the things that I think I excel at.
It makes sense to me.
It's all just straight lines and they might cross over,
but they're all just straight lines.
Classic wiring is easy.
It's all relays and switches.
You're not really dealing with a lot of ECU stuff like that.
So back to the hobby with my dad,
we would get these trucks and they'd just be riddled
with electrical problems.
That was like one of the things I was fixing all the time
was electrical issues.
And I just got good by fixing other people's mistakes.
I got good at that.
So it's hard for me to get a truck
and see the wiring and leave it alone.
I think it's disheartening to get an old truck or an old car.
And then you have a rat's nest of wires underneath the dash
and you're like, Oh man, how am I going to diagnose this problem?
Because my headlights won't turn on, you know?
And like that's one thing where I like to put a little extra money
and time into is fixing those kinds of things.
And there's got to be a line that you have to draw in the sand of like,
Hey, it's a giveaway.
We got to make it as nice as we can within reason.
I always get those questions.
Well, if you went through all this work and you did all this,
why didn't you do X, Y and Z?
Am I responsible to them every time?
I can't do it all.
Why didn't I put a jet engine in it?
If we're going to play, why can't I put a space time
continuum fluctuator that I could jump through space and time?
If you're going to play what ifisms, we could do that all day long.
So they're giveaways.
You've got to draw a line somewhere.
Well, here's a good what if the two wheel drive four door square
body, that one, you took a two wheel drive and made a four wheel
drive, was that riddled with?
That was hard.
That was a mistake.
I mean, the truck was awesome.
The truck you're referring to, we called the Eileen because it was so big
on the lift, it would lean.
Eileen was a 79 Chevy C30 Dually crew cab.
It had a Duramax and an Allison in it.
And then we four wheel drive converted it.
It was our most record breaking truck.
It had beautiful original paint and patina.
It was an awesome, awesome rig.
But four wheel drive swapping, those is difficult as square body
frames are narrow and like most axles that you want to use today,
unless you can go out and find a square body Dana 60 or 12 bolt.
Those are kind of harder to find.
You can find OBS Ford and Super Duty Ford front axles, but they
have wider spring perches.
And so it was involved.
I looked at that.
So when I found this truck on Facebook Marketplace, I found it
through a Facebook group called diesel sellers.
I'm in like a billion and a half Facebook years because that's a great place
to buy things.
If you don't know, if you're interested in a certain vehicle, the Facebook
group is going to have great deals with guys who know what they're talking
about and have done a good enough job at keeping whatever that is on the road.
I found the square body, the C30, and it had the Duramax swapped in
already and it ran and drove.
And I thought, okay, that's a ton of work.
I've done four wheel drives.
I've done a dozen four wheel drive swaps.
Great.
I could do that.
I think it would have been less work to do the Duramax swap
than to do the axle swap.
I think the four wheel drive swap on that, we put an exorbitant amount of
time and getting into that thing to get it to steer good.
And then at the end, it steered and drove and braked and did wonderfully.
It was all great and it was all worth it, but very cool truck.
Yeah, very, very cool truck.
Do you try to do the financial math here?
I mean, at this point, you probably know what you're doing.
So like, all right, here's what I got to buy it for.
Here's what I should put in it.
Here's about what I think I'll get out of it.
Yeah, I try to.
Part of your recipe.
Yeah.
When there's trucks like Bumpside and Denside Ford, they're square
body Chevy's that now I've done enough giveaways to where they're
tried and true, I can kind of look at that and say, like, I know
that we'll do good.
I knew mellow yellow when I picked up mellow yellow.
I said, that's going to crush it.
That's going to be just fine.
I knew that C 30 and some of my guys in the shop will see like,
are you sure?
I'm like, guys, it's going to do fine.
They're like, OK, and then it does just totally fine.
They do great.
Those kinds of trucks that are tried and true, I can look
at that and say, OK, he wants 25.
It needs 15 more work to break even on that 15.
I know my percentages.
I know my averages.
What's crazy with these giveaways is the law of averages
and statistics.
It's all true.
It is crazy.
I can take day one sales and when day one sales come in, I can
do the math, take my 30 giveaways and I take day one sales
versus the entirety of a giveaway sales and I take that percentage.
I can hit the nail on the head.
What a giveaway will do based on the first day of sales.
So day one sales, I might not know what day one will do.
Like in the BJ 60s, we kind of flopped on that.
I had bought a lot of inventory thinking it was going to do really well.
I got a lot of Toyota shirts on the shelf left over from this
Toyota giveaway and all of our Toyotas, by the way, have always done great.
The Toyota guys love it, but not that one for whatever reason.
But so I bought a lot of stuff thinking it was going to do really well.
And then day one sales came through and I said, OK, I already knew.
I was already prepped and was like, OK, this is going to be a little
bit of a stinker.
I'm going to have to do some extra freebies and push some product
and give some people some free Toyota shirts in there so I can clear some
inventory and some shelving space because I've got limited shelf space.
So based on day one sales, I can calculate those numbers
and it is always within like one percent of the guess.
And it blows my mind because I'm thinking, no way, the math maths,
but the math always maths.
It always works out. It's crazy.
Always maths.
Yeah. How big is your crew?
I think you sit four guys.
Yeah. So including me, we're going through some personnel changes
that Hudson Motors right now.
It's been crazy and nothing negative.
It's just been the way it's gone.
But I'm going through like nearly complete turnover, but it's OK.
We'll work it out. It'll always work out.
But there's four of us in the shop and then there are two of us
that go and pack orders and they have my media guy.
So there's seven or eight of us at any given time.
But almost everybody is part time.
I'm not running a full crew of eight people of 40 hours a week.
It's pretty relaxed.
The packing room, we try and get all our orders out before we pick a winner
and they always get it done and it all works out.
And what does Kirk do?
I found Kirk kind of cold called me or I called him.
Now, you had a list on Instagram looking for an artist.
And I was like, oh, I got to get in there now.
So I instantly messaged you.
It's like, don't look anywhere else.
I'm your guy. It all worked out.
I always trying to do new shirt designs.
And one of my goals with the business, I am a truck guy.
Back to your question earlier, like I know all these data
and all these facts and all these numbers, because again,
we've been doing it for long enough now.
And I make these YouTube videos when we do a giveaway truck.
I got to give them the walk around and I have a good enough
memory to where I can memorize these numbers and these data
and these facts so that the walk around video is polished.
And they get a good idea of what they're going to win.
There is a free method they can.
Yeah, you have to have a free method where they can write in
a postcard and get a free entry and all that kind of stuff.
But one of my goals with the business, though, back on the giveaway side is
I don't want you coming in and buying just some junky t-shirt
and you're just going to it's a throw away.
And if you don't win, you're mad.
My goal always is if there's only one winner
and if I have 4,000 participants who participate on average on a giveaway,
there's 3,999 guys and girls who are bummed that they didn't win.
You know, but my goal always is at least you like what you purchased from me.
So I'm always trying to come up with cool new shirt designs.
I retail a lot of great products from different people.
I don't like to do a lot of white labeling stuff.
I like to retail other people's things.
So I have crescent and gear inch tools.
I've got Nebo lights and true multi tools.
I've got delicious beef jerky from a local company called Avalon Meat
Handy socks from Camel City Co.
I'm trying to get mechanics work gloves right now.
So I like to retail those things so that if you're coming into my website
to get in on a giveaway and you're like, I don't want to wear his t-shirts
like, oh, but I need gloves for work.
Great, you can buy gloves from me and that kind of stuff.
But I like to have a variety of different styles of t-shirts.
And Kirk has a certain style of t-shirt that he designs.
And I've got more tattoo style, a single line tattoo style
t-shirt designers and just kind of different cartoonier style kind of guys.
And and then I dream up a shirt design in my mind.
And I'm like, OK, I think this would work good with Kirk's style
or with Stephen's style or whoever is going to do it.
So I have a handful, maybe five or six designers.
And every purchase is an additional entry of some kind.
Yeah. So when you get on our site and you buy a t-shirt for 30 bucks,
it's six entries into winning the five bucks as an entry.
Five bucks is an entry. Yeah.
And we've kept it there forever.
Every company is different.
I don't do entry multipliers.
It drives me nuts that these companies do this, but they'll get on.
And let's say it's the Friday before a giveaway closes
and they will send you an email and say, today only it's 20 times entries
for every dollar you spend.
You get 20 entries and yesterday it was every dollar you spent.
You got 10 entries and the day prior is every dollar you spent.
It was five entries.
Well, then they'll write you on Saturday that it's now one dollar is 50 entries
and on Sunday it's $1 is 100 entries.
And they just keep cutting the entry multiplier down, down, down, down,
down as a marketing ploy.
It bugs me.
I think it's gringey and kind of slimy.
So I've never, I shouldn't say never.
When we first started the giveaway,
I would do a double entry promotion for the last day and I would always get people
saying, man, I just bought something yesterday.
This sucks.
And it made me feel bad.
And I was like, okay, we got to be done.
So we just always kept it to every five bucks you spend is one entry to win.
Never changing that.
I won't do entry multipliers.
I don't think anybody should do entry multipliers.
The way I push sales is I give you freebies.
And so I think every business has the right to run a sale whenever they
want to run a sale.
And that's my version of a sale is like, hey, get in today.
And if you spend 50 bucks, I'll give you a free pocket knife.
If you spend $50 today.
And my customers have kind of gotten to know that to where they wait around.
Like, I think Riley's going to be free jerky this Friday for then 30 bucks and
you get free bag of jerky.
I do it every Friday.
I do something to push some extra sales that way.
Is everything through Instagram?
Instagram, Facebook and pretty much the advertisements all come through there.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't advertise on TikTok.
They don't allow me to.
Then I've never pushed for Google or YouTube ads or anything like that.
I think this business model fits well with an Instagram or Facebook style.
You've created a brand.
You've created a following.
It seems like that's the best plan for reaching those people that are interested
in your product.
And I think your product definitely speaks volume as well.
Even today when we talk to Mike, he has a giveaway because of his stardom
being on TV and everything else and with Fry Burger and everybody else.
Your success is based on the product that you've created and
it's got a following on that.
So that definitely talks a lot of volume.
It's two different means to achieve the same goal.
Yes.
I feel like I just learned how the Google search algorithm works.
Yeah.
Okay.
We've gone not in a circle here, but we've explored a lot of space here.
Riley, I just appreciate you sharing all this because some would consider
this your secret sauce, but I mean, you're pretty transparent about it.
Like, no, this is exactly what I'm doing and why.
But you really do know your stuff.
I appreciate it.
Inside and out.
And nobody can look at a picture of a rendering of a truck here on a table
and say, well, you know, this one actually has a cab from this other guy
that was made by this one company, so you can wear your fireman's headset.
And I got one.
That is a deep dive, very niche.
I can't believe I...
That was weird.
Yeah.
That's not normal.
This is a compliment.
It's not meant to be in no offense here, but you do know trucks.
Inside out, upside and down.
You've learned the tactics to just be successful with that.
I think if you didn't know trucks, you wouldn't be as successful.
Kudos to you there.
I appreciate it.
I think the people would sniff it out.
I think if I was just some random 30-something-year-old who was just out to make a buck, I think that
especially in our niche of classics in general, whether it be classic muscle or classic trucks,
I think guys in our industry could sniff that out and be like, nah, this guy doesn't...
They would see a poser from a mile away.
Well, yeah, you've got Dana 30 or Dana 44 axles underneath the trucks you're
building.
Yeah.
Yeah, you know the product.
Just as well be in the urinal giveaway business, and like, I think he's just selling me
stuff to make money.
Riley, how can people follow you?
Instagram and Facebook is at Hotson Motors.
I post pretty regularly, but the social media is pretty nonchalant as I just will post about
what we're doing at the shop and that kind of stuff.
Then the YouTube channel is at Hotson Motors as well, and that's where you'll find detailed
information about each giveaway truck as we launch them, but that all serves to push
people towards the website, which is HotsonMotors.com.
That's where you would go on, if you wanted to win a truck, you'd get on there
and you'd purchase things through the website, and there you'd get your entries.
Our next giveaway goes live on Black Friday to Cyber Monday, so it'll be a four-day-only
giveaway.
It's our shortest promotion of the year, and we'll be giving away that really clean
second-gen Cummins, five-speed manual, you know, PPUM 12 valve, very cool truck, and
that'll be probably the final giveaway of this year, but if they're watching this
before that, you know, so they don't miss out, I'd say just put your email address
at the bottom because I'll email them, and I do all of the email marketing myself
as well.
I do all the Facebook marketing, so when you get an email blast from Hotson Motors,
it's not some random marketing company who's just putting my name at the bottom.
That's literally me, like, hey guys, this is Riley, we're live, and thanks for your
support, that's literally me saying it every single time, so.
H-O-D-S-O-N?
H-O-D-S-O-N and Motors, M-O-T-O-R.
Yes, yep.
Thank you, Riley.
Okay, there you go.
I would love to know what you all thought of that, that's fascinating to me.
I will be honest, I have my idea of how I want to try this.
Riley did warn me that what I want to do probably isn't the best way to start
or go about it.
He didn't say it couldn't work in the long run, but he said starting these things is
pretty risky.
I'm debating it.
It would be a neat part of our 2026 business model overall, and you probably know what
I have in mind.
But he also said, look, you're either in the sweepstakes business or you do that
as a part of your business.
But if you're in the sweepstakes business, that's your job, 24-7, 365, you're not
in any other lane.
You need to know that.
I'm thankful that he made it that clear.
I'm not in the sweepstakes business.
I don't want to be in the sweepstakes business.
I want to be in this business or an entertainment business.
First and foremost, on cars, muscle cars, pop culture cars, movie cars.
The lane we're in is the lane we should be in.
I just want to add more to it.
So that was fun to me.
Really, really fun.
Please check out Pods and Motors.
Get yourself a shirt for Christmas too.
Okay.
I will be back next week for our big Christmas show season finale with,
you know who?
Who's that?
What's that?
Are those jingle bells right here?
Oh my, it is.
All right.
Between now and then, hit me up on Facebook or Instagram anytime.
Be sure to sign up for our weekly email newsletter.
You can do all that on the homepage of themusclecarplace.com website.
Byrne, why don't you queue us up on Slay Ride here, performed by the Iowa State University
Wind Ensemble with my daughter Emily on French horn.
As always, don't forget to keep chasing your dreams like you've let me chase mine.
See you all next week with our special guest.
Bye-bye.
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About this episode
Riley Hodson from Hodson Motors dives into the world of vehicle sweepstakes, focusing on classic 4x4s. He shares his journey from hobbyist to a successful giveaway business, detailing the challenges and rewards of running sweepstakes. With insights on building and promoting vehicles, Hodson discusses the importance of transparency and trust in this niche market. He also touches on the risks involved, the balance between customer builds and giveaways, and the strategies that have led to his success. This candid conversation reveals the intricacies of a unique automotive business model.
Original notes
Just outside the chaos of SEMA, we sat down at Hodson Motors—Riley Hodson’s backyard-born, fast-growing sweepstakes operation that’s taking over the classic 4x4 world. What started as a humble father-and-son hobby turned into a full business when Riley realized people weren’t just following his truck builds…they trusted him. From diesel-swapped Suburbans to bone-stock Toyotas, Riley breaks down the real math, the real risks, and the real heart behind giving away fully built vintage trucks to everyday enthusiasts. No hype, no gimmicks—just honesty, hustle, and a shop full of lifted classics ready for their next home.
Riley walks us through how he chooses the trucks, why some sweepstakes boom while others flop, and why every winner needs to know they’re not just getting a truck—they’re inheriting a hobby. It’s a rare, transparent look behind a world most people only see through ads and hashtags, and it proves why Hodson Motors has become the trusted name in classic 4x4 giveaways. And let’s be honest…nothing makes your muscle car look better than a perfectly built vintage truck parked next to it. After hearing this episode, you’re going to want to check out HodsonMotors.com and throw your name in the hat for the next one.
The post TMCP #632: The Full Business of “Give Away Sweepstakes” with Hodson Motors — Riley Hodson on Building, Giving Away, and Growing the World of Classic 4×4’s Sweepstakes first appeared on The Muscle Car Place.
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