Howdy All,
This is my first Ford to own. I have a 2000 Ranger XLT Sport step side, 3.0 flex, extended cab. I bought it at about 85K miles and in rather bad shape. I needed a second truck to run telecom service in. I've replaced the leaf springs, and shocks in order to raise up the rear end a bit but it did not seem to help much. I also just had the tranny rebuilt as it was slipping pretty badly at about 100K miles. I'm not sure of the OEM tire size on the truck though. When I go to tires.com, it tell me I should have 14" tires but there are 15" tires on the truck with stock ford wheels. The current tire size is 235/75/15. Do I have the correct tire size? The truck is still a bit squatty in the rear so how can I correct that problem? The truck also has an aluminum camper on it.
I would also like to lift the entire truck a little. Could I do it with tires alone, do I need a lift kit, or can shocks do the trick? I will get a photo of the little thing when I clean it up and post it as my AVATAR. Any help, ideas, suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

Some larger tires will raise it slightly, but a body lift or suspension lift will raise it a whole bunch more. There plenty of different lifts out there and at different costs too. You could go as easy as lift blocks in the rear and a coil spacer up front......I'm guessing you're a coil spring suspension up front being an 00 xlt. If the rear is a bit saggy, an AAL (add-a-leaf) may do the trick. Usually the rear is higher then the front.
As for the stock rim size, I believe in 00 they were 15's......the 80's boxes had those ugly baja specials on them that were 14's. Shocks won't give you any lift......just a better suspension depending on your application (street or off-road).

Just throwing some stuff at you....hope it somewhat helps.

Welcome to the site BTW!!