Converting 2WD truck to 4WD with IFS

[arveetek]

Now, before anybody calls me an idiot for wanting to do such a thing, let me explain:

I absolutely love my C-20. I plan on keeping it forever. I do, however, wish it were 4WD. I don't plan on ever taking this truck off-road. It's a highway truck only, used for daily driving and pulling trailers. I use it in my business, and am soon going to be pulling a 24' cargo trailer with it nearly everyday.

The reason I want 4WD is because some of the places I go with this rig will be muddy, and I don't want to get stuck. The other reason is for winter driving. We don't get much snow here, but it would still be nice to have 4WD.

If I went through the trouble of converting to 4WD, I am leaning towards the later-model IFS setup. I believe this would give me a better ride than a solid front axle. My C-20 rides a lot better than my K-10 (which I am planning to sell).

Has anyone ever done this? Is it even possible?

Thanks ya'll.

Casey

 

[Shaggy]

<font color="green"> An SFA would be SO much easier to do, the IFS is going to be a real pain to get in there and get all aligned and such. That being said, A buddy of mine did an SFA swap on his 96 1 ton, so he has the complete front IFS that he'll sell for pretty cheap. I'll have him make a post on this thread and let him name his price...

Personally I'd suggest doing a coil sprung SFA. It will still ride real nice and be alot easier to do. Not as easy as leafs, but way easier than IFS. </font color>

 

[willyswanter]

Yep, thats me. I have a complete system with t-bars and all and I'll sell it for 200 plus shipping. Has 4.10 gears in it right now.

 

[arveetek]

Yeah, I'm sure that SFA is the easiest route, but IFS intrigues me. I've even thought about cutting the front half of the frame off of an IFS truck, and welding it to my frame!

I'm just a little bit nuts, if you haven't figured it out!

Casey

 

[arveetek]

Sent you PM

Casey

 

[Silver84k5]

You gonna do a write up on that with pics? id love to see it,

 

[HarryH3]

The biggest problem that you're going to run into is that your '81-style frame never came with 4WD IFS. The newer trucks that did come with IFS have frames that are completely different than the 73-87 trucks. The frame widths are different by quite a bit. Getting everything matched up would be a pretty big project. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif

 

[zakk]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I'm just a little bit nuts, if you haven't figured it out!

[/ QUOTE ]

what on earth would ever give us THAT idea....

 

[arveetek]

Thanks for the info guys. It's just in the thinking stages right now. My dad is putting a 6-71 Detroit Diesel into his one ton and making his own air ride suspension from scratch, so making IFS work on the front of my truck really isn't much of a problem in my mind. I know it will be some work, but I'll just have to do some more research.

I think I might take a trip to the local salvage yard and do some measuring.

Casey