black_knight, glad to see you enjoyed the 4-wheeling adventure. A 3" SL (suspension lift) will definitely help your wheel travel and ride in typical off-road situations. Although, a suspension will change the trucks center gravity geometry and the steering/handling. On another note, once installing a suspension lift to your truck you are going to create added stress on the CV joints due to the increased angles, stock TREs and adjuster rods, factory torsion bars and mostly on the factory (weak) steering conponents as well. I highly recommend that you start budgeting now for either a Calmini, L&P or SLR type aftermarket steering system, you will need one. Your factory OEM steering system will wear out fairly fast after installing a new SL and wheel alignments will eventually become nearly impossible, plus the OEM steering components will fail even faster if you drive off-road. My factory steering (Idler Arm First) wore out in only nine months with running just 31" (31.8/10.50/17) BFG ATs after installing an AC (Automotive Customizers) deluex 3" SL system.
Without having to perform any body or fender/flare trimming to your 04 Frontier, I would say that most 31" tires mounted on the factory rims will be OK. It depends on the actual diameter and width of each manufactures' tire size due to the fact they all vary in tire diameter size. Although, you will still have minor rubbing issues even with only 31" (10.50 width) tires if you still have the factory mud flaps on your truck. If you want larger tires you will need to install a BL (body lift) as well. A 3" BL with a 3" SL and extended rear 1.5" shackles will allow up to 33" tires with little to almost no fender flare trimming.
Some of the most popular aftermarket manufacturers of off-road (steel) bumpers are but not limited to; ARB, Calmini and ShrockWorks. There are even more manufactures depending on which style or type of bumper armor you want for your rig.
