Plenty of old 4x4s sit on hillsides until a scrap buyer hauls them off. A man who rescues forgotten vehicles and posts as @99Projects wanted to save an old V8 Jeep and a Chevy truck from that fate. So he winched both off a steep slope, hauled them home and got the Jeep running.
He says he found both on Marketplace, so he works through the night on his trailer before the trip. Then he drives about three and a half hours and finds them on a wet, steep slope with almost no room to turn around.
Winching The V8 Jeep Up The Hill
“This is the Jeep. This was on the road as I think like 2017,” he says at 7:01.
First, they pull the Chevy out, because it is the harder job. He redirects his winch line off a log and later moves it to a tree that won’t budge.
The Jeep is next. Its tire is dry-rotted, so he swaps on the spare, and then leaves it in gear with the clutch in. “We don’t encounter another happy little runaway,” he jokes at 13:25.
Before the trip, he removes a winch from his trailer that had no power hookup, welds on another one and packs extra rigging and batteries. At one point, the Chevy rolls much more freely than anyone expected, so he takes the Jeep slowly.
Bringing The Jeep Back To Life
Back home, he opens the hood. “I think it’s a 304 V8,” he says at 22:40. Water had run out of the exhaust while loading, so he worries the engine is locked. Instead, it turns over.
Inside, he finds a three-speed manual, a roll bar and a front winch driven by a power takeoff, along with a full roadside kit.
Since the key is missing, he starts it at the solenoid. He also finds tape wrapped around a ruptured fuel line, so he runs the engine from a temporary fuel cell. “It’s alive!” he shouts at 31:20.
He adds that the Jeep supposedly ran when its owner parked it, though it needs body work. The storage area also holds belts, a fuel filter, hoses and a test light, and an old gun rack still sits in the cab.
A Ride Through The Woods
Next, he swaps a rusted wheel and takes it for a drive. The brakes, the four-wheel drive and the winch all work. However, he says the frame is pretty rough.
If he kept it, he says, he would swap in an electric winch. Meanwhile, the Chevy will get its own turn in a later episode, once he has the Jeep sorted.
What To Check Before Winching Out An Old Truck
His recovery shows a few smart habits:
- Check the tires before you pull, because dry-rotted rubber can fail mid-winch.
- Anchor to something solid, and move the line if the anchor starts to give.
- Leave a manual truck in gear with the clutch in, so it can’t roll away.
- Run a temporary fuel supply first instead of trusting an old tank and lines.
Where Things Stand
For now, the Jeep runs and drives, and the Chevy will get its own turn. On the way home, his own truck lost power, which he blamed on the lift pump, and a tow driver hauled him in for free.
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