After seeing you wheel yesterday (and you did well considering your truck and experience), I have a couple thoughts for you. I would strongly suggest doing a rear locker (EZ-Locker or Detroit - NOT WELDED), a small suspension lift, and bigger tires, in that priority order. AN IFS to Solid axle swap is a major upgrade and I suspect that you will realize that it would make more sense to buy a beater or a separate daily driver before you do this.

That said, I took the plunge and did this to my daily driver while in college. I had a 4" IFS lift on my 4runner that I bent and broke many times. The swap made a noticeable difference in wheeling capability, but not nearly as much as when I did lockers front & rear. Of course, I did quit bending & breaking things on the front IFS - not sure if this was a good thing though, as it just enabled me to get into worse situations that broke things that cost me a whole lot more $$$ than the IFS ever did...

p.s. This group is not shy about sharing opinions and there are no perfect answers. Keep asking around and doing online research and when you are ready to take the plunge, post up and there will be many willing hands (and tools) available for help.