Oh yes it is... It's either lift it, or break stuff underneath, or get stuck.

the steering maintenence is well worth it, if you offroad.

As to the McMastercarr bushings, you need to get a set of the thrust bearings, which run around $17 apeice for their hardest/best quality bronze.

I don't think a tapered bearing would work, because at the size we're talking about, they aren't really strong enough for the hits they're going to have to take. The stats on the ones I can find, are only in the 1000 lb of force range, which I don't think would be strong enough, considering the weight of an Xterra/Frontier.