At our local Isuzu Off Road Club here in South Africa we mostly make use of the Calmini suspension kits. Going for the 2 - 3" lifts with either the ball joint flip or replacement upper control arm, and then cranking up the torsions.

On the tires we mostly stick to either the 31" or the 32".

Ill see if I can help.
Best size lift?
3" of suspension on your 96 is great.
Rear: 1. Shackles. gives you about 1.5 inches. 2.Add a leafs or similar. Another 1.5 inches. 3.poly bushings for the shackles. Your OEM's are worn out and don't fit on the beefier shackles.
Front: 1.Ultra-low profile bumpstops. Cheap and very necessary. Gives you downtravel back. 2.Ball joint spacers. Cheap and very neccessary, allows your alignment to adjust back to spec and gives a little downtravel back.
Both: New shocks. The OEM shocks are HORRIBLE. I got pro-comp es3000's on sale at 4wheel parts for about 100 bucks.
Extras:
1.Diff Drop The 96-97 rodeos are blessed in that our front suspension is similar to the troopers, which include longer A arms and equal length halfshafts, all of which means that with 3" of lift your CV angles are much better than the 91-95's, and drop diff brackets are pretty unecessary IMHO.
2.Rear Bumpstop extensions: I got 1" extensions, so my tires wont contact the body on full compression. It's a perfect fit.
3.Indy4x tie-rods: The OEM ones snap often. For any serious wheeler, carry spares or put heavy duty ones on.
4.One-Peice Driveshaft: The stock 2-peice will vibrate on take-off when you lift it 2 inches or more.
5.Tires and Wheels: 16x8, 6x5.5 bolt circle, with 4.25inch backspace. Tires are 265x75r16 size Firestone Destination MT's. I only had to do some minor trimming to avoid rubbing. For 33's you will have to do much more trimming.
6. Manual locking hubs. Replace the drive flanges with Manual locking hubs to increase gas mileage, and avoid changing your CV boots often with the lift.
Take a look at my setup, which I consider close to ideal.

My 97

I have Darlington stuff, but He's out of the biz for now, but Matt at Indy4x is a great guy, and will work with you to get what you want. My suggestion is just save up for the Indy4x kit, do it right the first time and save yourself lots of time and hassle.
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what about doing this:

"You can always start with 1.5-2" of suspension lift with some shackles and T-bar crank. If you find you want more, then just get some add-leaves and give yourself the extra inch if you want it. My advice is start with the 2" lift."

Sorry for not checking the thread sooner, ive been sick and i totally forgot.

Forget about 2 little inches.....go big.............

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