Converting a 2wd to a 4wd

[mudpunisher]

onlyoneDR has a detroit locker in the rear and converted his dessert runner to IFS 4x4. you could do it for cheap but its all luck. it depends where you get the parts. if you could find a rolled 4x4 frontier for cheap, the tranny and front drivetrain should bolt straight up, provided you had the same engine size and are on the 4x4 frame like my desert runner

[dcobb]

Yeah I investigated this too and stopped reading right about the part when it said i needed to replace the transmission. Thank you but no thank you

[HKYStormFront]

on some manual trans' you only have to replace the tailshaft housing (domestics) does this work on imports too?

[FindingNismo]

ive never even thught about the 2wd havng a different frame. does it?

the prerunners do, but what about the normal 2wd? if you had to put on a new frame, then that should be key, forget about it.

another argument that came up...

if you want to convert....

why spend thousands of dollars and work to make your truck look like everyone else's...

or spend that cash on a SAS, better 4wd. more reliable, easier to lift if yo uwant to lift. and its custom. hardly any frontiers have it.

if i was going to spend hte money, id rather spend it standing out, than looking like every other stock frontier out there.

[OnlyOneDR]

Sometimes it's helpful for those who have actually done it to weigh in:

I was the first one to convert a D22U Frontier. I was bored, just out of school, living in a different city with nothing to do, no friends, and lots of $$ burning a hole in my pocket.

My truck turned into an obsession of sorts. I converted to 4x4, put an AC lift, Calmini crawler gears & steering, front LSD, skids, sliders, and a ton more all on at the same time. I never had the thing in the dirt before it was done.

I did put the Detroit it after wheelin' it for about 6 months because 4x4 just didn't cut it in a lot of situations. Now most wheelin' is easy for my truck as long as ground clearance isn't an issue.

But I have fun with it. And that was the ultimate goal.

Convert or not, just have fun. And BTW, the locker makes my truck able to do stuff in 2wd that gave me trouble as an open-diff 4x4, so take that as you will.

I spent literally thousands of bux on all the work, but the conversion could have been done for a bit less than $2k. Of course I did all the labor myself, and spent nearly a year collecting parts on the cheap. It's all about what's it worth to you?

[05XE]

Originally Posted by nebraskafrontier

dude i want a picture of that!

i'll get one the next time i'm in indy