Not true, Alex (Alexjet) had a 7 inch lift on his, but you have to do a bracket lift, which in essence drops the mounting points of your lower control arms. Those do not increase your ground clearance more than coilovers since you now have the lower point (the bracket which the LCA now mounts to). If you have 2wd you can easily crank up your coilovers more than a 4wd as we are limited by CV angles, not coilbind and other issues related to IFS/double wishbone suspension. I am installing a differential drop on my 4wd in the next few days, which will lessen the strain on my CV's and if I want, allow me to crank up my coilovers a little more. I am not sure how much lift I am running but from the ground to the center of my fenders is about 38".
Also, Roams did a solid axel swap not for lift but rather for increased off road performance. Solid axels have much better flex and are all around better for technical off roading.
An old Dana 44 or any solid axel would be a huge pain/basically impossible to put into a 4Runner. It is much more than just dropping a solid axel in, there are all the linkages, the steering, the brakes, the new suspension setup, drivetrain components and not to mention all the electronics. Roams still has yet to work out his ABS.
