[Tahoejayy]

I did a search and I didn't get much info besides its expensive and time consuming.But anyways I have an 05 chevrolet avalanche I just picked up that I would like to make a 4x4.i ended up picking up the avalanche because it had no rust in body or frame unlike my 03 tahoe with has a completely rusted out frame and cab.so my tahoe is a 4x4 and everything works perfect and it runs no problems.but just in case when I bought the avalanche I picked up a avalanche ecu that is also 4x4.so how do I go about swapping all the 4x4 components over to the avalanche and what problems am I looking at running into?cost is not an issue because I literally have everything.any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Tahoejayy]

Ok I'm assuming not much Info on this. So I'll change my question is there a difference between the 4x4 and 2wd avalanche frames?

 

[RayVoy]

Sorry your not getting much help, not sure anyone on here has tried what you want to do. I suspect it's a big job.
As far as the frames go, the 2wd trucks have coil springs in the front and the 4wd trucks use torsion bars, a big difference in frames.
Now it may just be cross members that can be moved around; but I don't know.

 

[Tahoejayy]

Thanks for the reply I have a donor avy thats 4wd but its pretty beat. So I'm assuming the crossmembers are for sure different because the 4x4 accommodates the front diff as well as the rest of the 4x4 assembly up front.so I would just need to know if the crossmember would bolt up or not

 

[RayVoy]

My suggestion is to crawl under both of them, take a lot of measurements and a lot of pictures

 

[Tahoejayy]

Thats probably what I'll end up doing the 4x4 is on the ground at the moment though I'll probably start in about another month and post pics as I go and see what I run into and if it gets to a point its not doable I'll just put everything back to stock im actually surprised this hasn't been done yet already

 

[RayVoy]

I think when you crawl under the 2 trucks you'll see why it isn't being done. I suspect it's a very big job.

And please, take this as constructive criticism, if your asking if this can be done, I don't think you have the mechanical skill level to pull this off. This is a big job for a shop with proper tools and trained craftsmen; I don't think it's a job to use as a learning tool.

 

[Tahoejayy]

I understand what you mean but its been done so I know it can be done the only problem I'm running into is nobody has documented how they did it or problems they ran into doing so but again its been done.im pretty mechanical when it comes to things like this I just need to be pointed in the right direction making things fit is something iv been doing on bikes and cars for a while now.i know I can do it like I said before I just need to be pointed in the right direction. I literally have 2 donor trucks and parts so I know I have everything I would possibly need parts wise so I just need to find out what fits which is what I'm going to end up doing for the most part.there is 1 video on you tube of a very similar swap and he didn't even have a lift when he did it and he didn't do anything I wouldn't be able to handle.

 

[thegawd]

people make rear wheel drive trucks 4x4's by swapping the bodies. swapping the rwd body into the 4x4 frame. An avalanche is closely related to a suburban. they might share the same wheel base which is probably longer than the Tahoe.

 

[RayVoy]

I'm just making an observation and I hope it rolls along as you expect.

Keep us posted.

 

[Tahoejayy]

Gotcha ok although for the tahoe I was going to try to just use the complete 4x4 assembly and transmission since its complete and everything works as far as I know the front transfer cases should be the same and I'm assuming all connecting parts as well.my idea is taking the complete front suspension out and seeing if it would mount to the avy frame and if it does mount then I would just have to transfer the trans and shatfs its just an idea to get me started.now as far as electrical I was just going to swap ecu's for a avy with 4x4 already obviously the dash buttons the only other question i have is wiring harness wise would I be able to use the 4x4 harness from the tahoe or would I be looking into getting a avy 4x4 harness?thank you to everybody thats already replied im deff starting to get a clearer picture of this project