For the hubs, it depends on how crazy you get. Typically they get gummed up and stop working. Or you inadvertently over grease them and they gum up and won't engage. If you're hard on your truck with big tires etc, the manual hubs are stronger though.
For any lift, if you're trying to keep it fairly normal and not go too wild, I'd stick with a coil spring spacers and lift shackles. You could also do a body lift, but then you may have to consider extensions for the steering shaft, bumper lift brackets etc.
Or you can just start cutting with a sawzall
When you're looking for stuff, look for Ranger stuff of the same year. They're equivalent, but there will be more selection than if you look for just Explorer stuff (probably has to do with the whole Firestone/ Explorer debacle)
For suppliers look at 4Wheel Parts as they have a Canadian presence. Summit Racing is pretty good too and they'll quote you proper shipping and customs clearance to Canadian addresses.
Since it looks like you're towing, I'd definitely look at a bigger trans cooler