Well, there are a lot of things you can do before resorting to SRS's. Remove the front trackbar will make a huge difference. Since the leafs are a bit stiff you probably won't miss it. Most people don't even reuse the rear. Replace the nuts on the shackles with nylocks then loosen them a bit. If they were torqued down while the suspension was in the air, they will be very tight. I believe the FSM say's something like 90lbs-ft. This is really high and will more better loser. This is also why you need to use nylocks and not the standard nut. It could back out and fall off.
Shackle reversions will do nothing for you offroad. Onroad, they will soften the suspension. If not ddone right, they will soften it enough that you will start to experiance bumpsteer and a lot of body pitching under hard braking. There isn't a problem with the front driveshaft being too short. As the suspension compresses, the axle will move rearward a bit. This can cause the tires to rub against the fenders and the driveshaft to bottom out under full compression. If it bottoms out with force, the transfer case will break. So you have to make sure your driveshaft has enough travel in both directions.
