Run 2 instances of vbulletin?
 

I would like to install a fresh copy of the newest release of vbulletin and run it alongside my current install until I get all the mods and styles ready...is this possible? The reason I ask is that my current installation is modded so heavily that I can almost guarantee that an upgrade will break my forums, so I want to start over fresh while the old one is still running and possibly move the database to the new installation?

You are permitted to run a second instance of vbulletin for testing purposes only and it can NOT be accessible by the public.

Just do a standard install with a new db, install the vb files in a different dir.

This is what I wanted to do...

Once all testing and upgrades are done to it, is there a way to move my database to it and delete the old vbulletin?

You could use impex to import the users and posts.

So there's no real way to move the database from one vbulletin installation to another on the same host account?

To move the database, export the database of the "test forum". Drop all the tables of the old database. Import the test database into the old.

This WILL destroy all the data of the old database (posts/thread/users/etc).

I believe you just want to move the style over ;). To do that, export the style on the test forum, and import it into the production database using the Style Manager.

Seeing as you didnt post your current installed/running version of vbulletin, i assume your running 3.6.x, and according to your first post, you want to run the latest which is 3.7.x, there is NO way to move it over, you either have to run the upgrade script or use impex as i stated the first time.