Another s-10 swap question

[GADRE]

hi everyone, first time poster but long time looker. Been actively searching your site for ages and finally thought I should just ask, excuse my naiveness but here's my question. I have a 50 AD 2-ton and I'm looking at different frame swap options, one donor that has an unbeatable price is a 2000 Dodge Durango. Is this a pipe dream or can this be done? Thanks in advance!

[Bushwickbill]

Anything can work just depends on how much effort it will take. as long as the track width and wheel base are close it would be fine

[MiraclePieCo]

Sounds feasible as any frame swap to me. You may start a whole new trend!

[iowaboynca]

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=414646

Here's thilde's dakota swap

[GADRE]

Great, thanks for the info! I'll do a more thorough reading of thidle's build but it looks close. If I go through with this I'll post what I can and let everyone know what happens and probably try for some advice on things.
Cheers,

[HUSSEY]

There was a good build thread on the HAMB called AD-Kota, or something like that, using a Dakota chassis, but it got deleted. **Edit, actually, that was the one I was thinking about in the link above--he just goes my a different name on the HAMB.**

Even if you can get a Durango chassis on the cheap you should also consider the wide selection of aftermarket parts and support for the S10 chassis. Though I've never made a comparison, I would say it's 100x more than the Durango or Dakota.

[joedoh]

thats a good point, everyone and their mom makes s10 lowering parts.


man the fab work in thilde's truck is awesome. I like that the steering is rack and pinion and is behind the AD core support too.

[mr48chev]

Dakota is the right width to get the wheels out in the fenders without spacers but many including the one I have in my yard have real small brakes on them. Industrial Chassis does sell caliper brackets to use with the larger truck or Mopar big car rotors though.
I'm just going to use the front suspension and steering and the AX-15 TRans with my stock frame and the decision to use the rear springs is up in the air as I might build a trailer out of the box and rear section of the frame to get my original investment back.

[gusman]

I have a 52 on a 97 Dakota chassis. I ended up having to move the motor back 5" or so to clear a radiator. Keep in mind the motors in those chassis (as well as the rear diffs) are positioned slightly on the passenger side of the chassis. Haven't touched it in a year due to building a house but hoping next summer being able to start in on it again.

I used this chassis because I already had the dakota and the motor had 1000 miles on it and all new chassis components when I realized a 97 dakota would never really be "cool" so I yanked the sheet metal off and picked up a rotted out '52 and the rest is history. The dimensions do line up really nicely though.