Body lifts have their place and are a necessary evil- used within reason. There are many good reasons for sensible 1"-1.5" with no real drawbacks to them in this size. 3" has no place anywhere. Save yourself the $150 and other headache associated with that and go to your local steel yard. 3" will open up many other issues as well that will create headache for things like steering, cable and shifter routing, AC routing, etc. Pick up a scrap chunk of aluminum and go to work. I ran into same situation on my Suburban HD build and could not find anyone selling a 1"-1.5" body lift for the Suburban as they are all 2" or 3" kits. I got a chunk of aluminum and spent some time on the lathe. These are easy to do, just time consuming. Many kits and many folks will do typical "hockey puck" style just flat on both ends. That style would be super fast and easy to make. I chamfered tops of mine to fit recess on body like OE mount did, and recessed bottom to overlap the lower mount. They measure 1.5" total height but only give 1.25" of lift due to .25" recess for overlap. Replaced all the body mounts with energy suspension pieces as many were shot when I pulled them out. AC lines in front will still fit nicely through factory frame port without pulling to tight to cause need for spending money on discharge and recharge or having new lines made. No steering frame bracket relocation needed, no extended or re-routed trans or t-case shifter brackets or mods needed nothing other than bolt it in and be done. In rear the added height should be more than enough to clear rear AC lines without issue. I'm in process of tucking 40s now, and like you- refuse to give up rear heat/AC.
And- second fuel tank??? what type/style tank are you looking for? Trying to go 60 gallon total? My '97 3/4 ton has 42 gallon tank-but fits frame contours and was a real PITA to cut frame sections out and raise to stuff the tank after the BL went in. The frame crossmembers are shaped to the tank itself. I forget exact dimensions but the 42 gallon is a big tank that takes up ton of room. Forget what year the change took effect but they went to the long/skinny 30 gal size or close to it. Too bad you're so far away- I have full tank and evap setup complete from an '05 1500HD taking up room in the shop that needs to go away... Regardless, look around a little more- if you're willing to do a little more work, I think you can do a fair bit better on your total budget and save a few more dollars there to put towards fuel and camping adventures...
Best of Luck,
Mike
