I've lifted, one way or another, seven personal 4WD's in my time, and helped in doing so to a half dozen other folks. The first thing to get past is: why am I lifting the rig? If it's only for the 'look'; think again when it comes to a truck camper. The center of gravity is high enough as is. I've done a 3" frnt. coil spring lift on the Dodge, but only to more level the rig with that 150 lb. winch and 100 pounds of winch front bumper, receiver hitch, and bovine deflector hanging way off the front. Still, even with that tiny suspension adjustment, I'm not real happy with the result. The steering geometry is not right because the control arms are now pointed down at an angle changing the caster and exacerbating the tire wear.
The argument to NOT lift the truck also has to do with over all height. Ours is 10 feet, 2 inches to clear and I still snag stuff along the trail thru the trees. I don't want any more height. If the idea is to make space for bigger tires, there is lots of drag when you pull on that string. With taller, wider tires you must consider what it takes to make that work. Be very careful of the back spacing of the wider wheels. 4-1/2 " is not good. I was looking at some G.I. reject, cheap, 80% tread, Hummer wheels and tires (6.5"or 7" B.S., 9" wide, 35" actual dia. tires/16.5 wheels/8 on 6.5's, beadlocks optional).
Going from 33" to say 36" tires requires:
1. A change of gearing in the pigs. And still, depending on which axle you have, the ratios may not be a good match. With those perimeters, mine would have to go from 3.55:1 to 4.10:1 gears, which are available for the Dana 60 and 80.
2. A revamping and possibly lengthening of each of the driveshafts. That's $$.
3. Recalibrate speedo, assuming the lift and larger tires doesn't screw up your anti lock brake sensors.
4. If you have unserviceable unit bearings on the front axle; switching out to wider spaced bearings and one-ton interior locking hubs. It's about $2K just for a whole bunch of parts to do that job.
5. New longer shocks and revamping the anti-sway bar brackets. New longer brake hoses.
6. Where are you going to put the spare? Any larger than stock will not fit under and between my dodge's frame rails. So any I take along under there must be half deflated to fit.
I've been thinking about the yea's and nay's of a lifted TC for a long time. Which brings me to the place I find myself at: namely hogging out the front fenders to allow for 36's without a lift and moving the front axle forward with longer control arms which requires a forward placement of the steering box. This all gets into a whole new weird area, which I've been at before but with much smaller hardware: Jeeps/Scouts/Land Cruisers. I did look at some of the 'budget' lifts for my Dodge, but the hardware looked awfully skimpy. The truth is, the stock suspension is the most reliable suspension given any truck. Ford and the newer Dodge's are the only 'stock' trucks that provides enough wheel well space to put larger tires on without a lift or cutting.
So the answer is: there is no easy answer to put a camper on a lifted truck. It's been done before. If you do it, I will watch how it pans out.
regards, as always, jefe
