lift kits on prado

I guess you will probably be carrying a fair amount of gear, so yes I think a suspension upgrade would be a good investment. There are several options depending on your budget and performance expectations. These are all discussed in a fair amount of detail on Pradopoint.
For what it's worth I run a + 50mm lovels springs / Bilstien shocks combination with Firestone airbags in the rear that has performed well for the last 70,000km

Hi there. I have a 90 series Prado, and decided on a combination of 50mm lift with 100kg stronger coil springs all round, and new heavy duty shockers all round. No air bags have been added. Then I had to replace the hitch tongue to correct the towing levels.
The result is a rig that still tows the van well, and can handle rough stuff fairly well, including eliminating most of the tail end sag that others mention. TJM in Adelaide provided the suggestions and supplied the gear, and didn't try a hard sell to add the kitchen sink.
In the desert, I have to carry 200 litres of water and 80 litres of fuel, plus all normal camping gear, and this arrangement has met the need (and, no, don't mention GVM out loud.)
It's all about how much money you can (or wish to) spend, eh?
Hope this helps
Chris (SA)

I tow a Trackabout Safari CT with a 60L Trailblaza on the drawbar, so it's quite a heavy ball-weight.

I had the rear coils upgraded on my 120 series for about $240. Handles beautifully.

Spliney

Yes, I would upgrade springs for increased load in the rear, shockers and LT tyres. I found the rear shockers on our 2003 Prado have got a fair amount of stone damage and dents in the lower part of the shocker body.

I think ARB (maybe others as well) sell a stone guard that bolts onto the shocker tube to deflect stones from damaging the shocker. I will be looking at these before my next trip.

The answer is it all depends on what you are carrying and the way you drive. We've had clients do the Kimberley and I mean all of it over a two month trip on standard suspension 120 Prado with poly air bags as the only suspension modification. They were camping and travelling reasonably loaded but I would not rate them as heavy as per a Simpson trip as you don't really need to carry that much equipment. The only other change was AT tyres, Bridgestone D694 and we customised a weekend training course to help them prepare for the trip.

They covered something like 3850 km off bitumen, had no punctures or vehicle damage and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Well they did have a tail-light globe fail if that counts for much.

Regards

RobA