CRD on here, my friend has the twin of your truck and we put a leveling kit in and he is on 35X12.5R20’s and it doesnt rub at all. He wont be able to comment on the mileage though casue he never drives it! lol But since it sucks ass on gas to begin with I dont see it killing you to loose another mpg or two.
Body lifts arnt stupid. It depends on what you need to do.
There are three ways of looking at a practical lift, not some show truck BS. Axle clearance, suspension travel and chassis clearance.
Body lift will allow bigger tires, so you get axle to ground, and chassis to gound clearance, but you wont gain suspension travel, actually you might loose some.
Suspension lifts You will gain suspension travel and the other clearances, but you will hit the limit on tire sizes even with good suspension kits, then it comes back to a body lift or a hacksaw and fender flares to get bigger tires.
Also body lifts are good for cars that have CV joints in the front. If you drop them too much your will stress the shit out of them and they will fail. Then you get into sub frame drops, and now you just lost axle clearance again. At that point a body lift would be good if you just want to get some bigger tires under there to gain clearance.
body lifts are just a part of the puzzle. People just knock them casue they are cheap and get you say 3 inches of lift. So people e-thug and are like your a cheap fucker I just spend $700 on my 3" lift I must be better than you…
I went to Paragon one time and this guy put a 2.5" body lift in a stock TJ rubicon, and put 33’s under it. Be went everywhere and then some as compaired to the BDS 3" spring shock combo TJ’s and he only spent $100. Cant knock that.