2wd to 4wd conversion questions for 2016 Tacoma

Hey, y'all. I moved from a place where no one ever needed 4wd vehicles to a place where they are kind of needed consistently. What is it like to convert my rear wheel drive Tacoma to a 4wd vehicle? I don't have space to do the work myself, so is that something that can be done at a shop, or more of a hobby for at-home mechanics?

Thanks!

 

Trade it in. Short, simple, painless answer.

 

You’ll spend 10k to convert likely. Better to just eat the loss. Buy what you want.

 

It takes a lot of work, time, money, and so much technical stuff to convert to 4wd. You honestly are better off just trading it in.

 

Yeah, the reason you won’t see anyone do this is due to cost. Why do this when you can trade yours in for a 4x4 for less?

 

Have a shop do a solid axle swap with an atlas transfer case or one of those nifty marlin crawler dual cases. But make sure the shop does good documentation and takes lots of pictures for you to upload to on here.

 

It's absurd to convert a 2016. Even if you did a clean job of it and you were successful, you've mutilated the truck and destroyed the resale value. No one will knowingly buy a converted truck for anywhere near the price of a factory 4x4.

If you plan on keeping it forever, sell the 2WD and buy a 4WD. The difference will be less than the cost of the conversion. And you will have a factory truck with warranty.

Converting the truck will make your warranty evaporate.

 

Curious as to why it's needed where you are now, I'm assuming due to snow? You might try snow tires and couple hundred lbs in the bed. Plenty of guys here drive 2wd where it snows. Unless it's crazy amounts of snow, then prob disregard

It's a Cheaper alternative than trading it in. If you still find you need it even after trying that then trade it in at that point

 

Not according too most guys on TW.i get chewed out every single time I say what you just said.

 

I have heard it was cheap to convert, and I am currently looking at trading it in eventually. I just wasn't sure and know I can't do it myself, so I thought I would throw out the question on this forum. Thank you guys for your responses! Keep the opinions coming, though!

 

Cheap to convert a brand new truck to 4wd.

Ahahaha.
Transfercase
Diff
Axles
Hubs
Driveshaft
Countless electronics
Wiring
Labor

And more labor to keep resolving your frankenstein trucks endless array of issues.

 

The only way I can think of this being a good idea is a solid axle install, and to pay a shop to make that much custom work would be prohibitively expensive.

Worth it if you can do your own work, but a bit insane to pay someone else.

 

It's not.

 

We are realistic here in the 3rd gen section. A bit whiny, but realistic. Walks like a duck and all that...

 

Second gen guys say $2500 too convert.

 

Yeah unless you somehow picked up a free totaled 4x4 with a perfect front end!

 

Honestly op, I have to agree with the others trade up. While converting it could be cheeper, the problem is there is not much info on converting a 3rd gen. And it’s so computer basset your proably going to have many headaches and fault codes.
If it was a early 2nd gen it can be done realitevly cheep and easy. But if your not going to be the one doing the work it’s gonna cost more than it’s worth.


If you can take the truck back to where you were and sell it, broable get the best value for it there than where most want 4x4

 

Me and 2-3 other guys did the conversion in less than 12 hours and with parts less Than $1500 for me it was way cheeper to convert and I got awd as well as 4wd out of the conversion

 

I have 10000 to convert then. They do a factory conversion, no electrical gremlins, use OEM parts for $2500, I can make bank...

 

Hahaha let him test out the 2016 solid axle swap!!!!