Making a 2wd into a 4x4??

[The Daver]

OK well I have a reg cab long box truck thats a 2wd that I planned on lowering and making into a monster for street/strip but I have my other reg cab stepside thats already lowered and I am debating putting it on air. So I dunno if I really want two lowered trucks and am wondering what you guys think of turning my reg cab long box into a 4x4. I have a donor truck with complete IFS so I could easily throw that under there. Then put in a transfer case and find the necessary drive shafts and be done? Is it that easy or am I missing something here?? Or go all out and SAS but I dunno whats all required for SAS does anyone have a write up on what is all needed??

Also just saying that I wanna use this truck because up here its not easy to find a nice truck with as good of a body as mine is. And instead of buying another truck I would rather just put the money into the one I already have... Anyway just looking for comments and opinions and any write ups you guys may know of that would help me. Any help is appreciated guys.

 

[willinthe985]

The ifs won't bolt onto the 2wd frame. Imo, it's not worth it.

 

[Greg]

Dave, If you have a donor truck with installed 4x4, I would say the easiest way would be to swap the body onto that frame. The SAS is good for offroading and rock crawling, but as a DD it's not that practical due to the required amount of lift you would need to do the SAS.

I would say go with the IFS Frame swap if you don't plan on offroading with it, if you do plan on it, do the SAS. That is my uneducated opinion though lol.

 

[6chevy9]

i agree with greg. SAS the 2wd or frame swap it. the only way i know of to put the ifs under your 2wd would be to cut the two frames and hope to god you put them back together straight! IMO that is not a very good way to do somthing. the difference in the the two frames are at the least the trans forward where everything mounts is totally different 2wd vs 4wd. they may even very in stiffness.

 

[CodyB]

I vote body swap, especially if you can find a reg cab 4x4 frame thats in decent shape, with or without anything else, then you'll have just about all you'll need without any serious frame mods

 

[Bigg G]

x 3 on the body swap !!!!

 

[Mike]

Sell the longbed and the donor truck and put the money into the stepside.

 

[Greg]

Sell the longbed and the donor truck and put the money into the stepside.

well thats no fun mike.

 

[The Daver]

Ok well the reason why I wasnt thinking body swap is cause my donor truck is extended cab so I dont know if body swap is even possible. So it seems the only option is SAS but I doubt Ill do that so my new plan is put the step side on air and just reuse the lowering kit on the longbed....Ill have two lowered truck one on air and the other static but its all good cause I just picked up a 2 door tahoe for my winter/4x4 needs

 

[Mike]

Pics of all these trucks!