K5 to K20 Swap compatability and Plow Frame. Help !

[ji240]

Hello

I have an 89 GMC Jimmy. The guy down the road from me just put his 3/4 ton Suburban up for sale for 1500 dollars. It has a blown head gasket. Both front and rear axles have been redone ( bearings, seals, ball joints. tie rod ends etc. ). It has an 8 ft Fisher Plow. Even the body is in pretty good shape. I beleive the truck is an 88 - 89. He wasnt home to talk to yet. I only took the info he had on the window.

Heres my thoughts and I would like yours and some advice.
If I took the axles ( The Suburban has a 14bolt SF in it. ) and put them in my K5 and swapped the plow to my K5 I should have a pretty nice plow rig. The Suburban also has nice mag wheels and new 16 inch tires.

Are the 3/4 ton Suburban frames the same as the 1/2 ton K5s?
Will the plow swap over? Should I swap the leaves and all? or just the axles themselves? Do you see any incompatabilties between these? Or anything I may be over looking. I have wanted to do the 8 lug swap for a a while now and this seems cheap and easy.

My thoughts are if I did this swap I could then put my 1/2 ton stuff in the Suburban and sell that after fixing the head gasket which is cheap and easy to do. I also have a 6 inch lift and 35s I could put on it. I imagine I could get 1000 - 1500 back for the Suburban running and ready to go.

OK thoughts? Ideas? Let them rip. Is this a bad idea?

Thanks for reading

John

 

[TorkDSR]

as for plowing:

plowing with a lift and tires blows. throw a locker in the back and every plow outing turns into off-road recovery. i plowed one season with my k15 jacked up 7" running 38.5s and an auto. i couldnt stand it. after each plowing, i would have to remind myself to let go of the death grip i had on my steering wheel.

the plow will also get in the way of crossover, and a winch. but it gives a good recovery point.

as far as i know both frames are the same. the weight of the plow will reak hell on stock k5 springs, making them even flatter /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif

any more info you need? drop an IM TorkDSR

Ryan

 

[ji240]

Thanks for the reply TorkDSR. My plan was to run my Jimmy with the 3/4 ton axles and no lift and the plow. The Suburban would have the 6 inch lift, 1/2 ton gear and no plow. Would be nice I think if this all can be done.

Thanks

John

 

[ji240]

Anyone else with some comments? ideas? thoughts on this?
Much Appreciated
Thanks
John

 

[kennyw]

Everything you have planned out is a simple swap. You should have no problems as long as you get conversion u-joints for the rear axles on both trucks. But I would add an extra leaf to the stock pack up front to carry the weight better and re-enforce your frame before pushing any snow.