Okay, it may be heresy here to ask but why are you going to lift it if that's all you do? I do trails up to 4/5 (on the traildamage.com 1-10 scale) in my 04 Tacoma and it's bone stock, except for the tires.
Should I also mention that my Taco has open diffs front and rear?
For the price of a lift kit you can put a lot of gas into that 4 cyl motor, or you can put the money into other mods that you will get more use out of. Storage? RTT? Shell?
If your lift kit is to fit much larger tires, you might want to reconsider, especially if you get the 4 cyl.
I may be in the minority here but I am a firm believer in the principle of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Although I've toyed with the idea of lifting my Taco, I honestly haven't been in a situation yet where a lift would have been beneficial, and I've been in quite a few where the lift would be detrimental (as in, higher CG which means a greater likelihood of a rollover.)
I might someday get a more responsive suspension, but if it only gets me a 1" or even a 0" lift I'd be fine with that.
I have to ask - have you ever owned a single-cab pickup before? Because you will find out very quickly just how inconvenient it can be to have ZERO storage ability in the cab. Especially if you have the manual transmission (which takes up floor space) and are carrying a passenger. If you go this way I would seriously recommend either a shell/topper or a toolbox in the bed to carry your stuff.
I got my first extended cab truck in 1999 and after that I decided that no matter what the penalty I would never go back to a regular cab. That extended cab is just too convenient!