what would have to be done to put a 89-95 ext cab/box on a 84-85 lwb frame? the front of the bed would probably have to be bobbed about 10" because of the wheelbase difference and the mounts and gas tank are probably in different places. the wiring will also be a bit different. is there anything im missing? there must be something else or everybody would be swapping these instead of 84-88s.

I beleive that the frames are the same so should be pretty much a bolt on as far as wireing goes if it had a 22re before and the new cab is 22re should not be to bad

Paul Ryan (aka Booger Weldz) has done this swap, I believe that they wiring is very similar. The front four cab mounts will line up but obviously you need to relocate the rear two cab mounts. There is a "hump" at the rear of the cab for the gas tank, but you still might need to relocate it.

I was just wondering today how hard it would be to swap cabs on the two trucks I have. I would like to swap the 87 4runner cab and the 87 std 4x4 turbo truck cab. WOuld everything work? How does one even get the cab off a crane? Should I just leave it alone?

They really are not that Heavy when i pulled my cab off i just used my hi lift and made some bg block things and rolled the chassis out not that bad but it does take a bit of work It could be done in a weekend though

how can the frames be the same if the wheelbase is 10" longer?

Those two cabs should swap with no problems at all. I am running an 87 Xtra Cab on an 86 short wheelbase frame. When we took the Xtra Cab off of the frame we took the doors off and put a strap through the cab and then lifted the strap with a forklift. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

To put it back on my truck I ordered pizza and invited over four of my biggest friends. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mrt.gif" alt="" /> Getting it over the engine was a bit of a challenege but with the doors off and the cab gutted it was not too terribly difficult.

They only made 2 frames that i know off short and long short = reg-cab short bed / 4 runner , long = x-cab or long bed reg cab

I think the wheel base is different because the extracab from 89-95 is longer than the extracab of the 84-88.
I'm not sure if the frame legnth is different or not though.
It may be.
Many people have put 89-95 beds on the 84-88 frames, and they line up perfectly except for the last bolt (about 1/2" off from what I've heard).
Todd

Hmmm I may have to look into doing this then. The reason I was thinking of swapping is this: I love the turbo engine, I can keep 55 up very steep hills and thats with only exhaust done, the only problem is it's a stand cab and I really want the extra room of an extra cab or 4runner. I was thinking I could swap in a 22rte in place of my 22re in the 4runner but didn't want to get rid of my perfectly good 22re. Then I came up with the idea of the cab swap. It seems like it would be easiest to just swap the cabs that way I still have my 4runner with more power, and now the truck has the 22re in it. That way I wouldn't have to deal with swapping out the transmission as well. Would everything just bolt right on? I think the tranmission shift fork arrangment is different? Would the higher gas tank of the pickup be a problem? How hard is it to take off the cab? I've never done a body lift so I wouldn't know. This sound like the way to go, or should I just try and find a turbo extra cab 4x4 5sp and sell this one? Thanks