its hard to find a tread design in that price range appeals to me. im looking at this the wrong way i geuss haha (shopping as if i was the one buying).... tires can make or break the way a truck looks in my opinion....

 

To me, the the Long Trail is an SUV tire and not even a 4x4 SUV tire. Kinda something best suited on a Honda CRV or 'Yota Highlander.
Maybe check out the Rugged Trail, at least it's got a little bit of an A/T tread and is available in full size SUV and Truck sizes. Have not read any reviews, but might at least be worth checking into.
You are out of my area of expertise here, 'Feej, even if/when I replace the tires on my GC daily driver, it's gonna be a more aggressive tire. Even though the truck gets the majority of the mud & grunt work, the Jeep's tires must have the ply rating for rocky trails and such for recreational uses.

What's the reasoning in changing wheel sizes? Usually you hear me bash 20's, but that's strictly from an off-road perspective. You can't get near the flex and floatation needed for off-road situations from a 33" or even 35" tire on a 20" wheel. In your case, I see no advantage to go to a 17" wheel. I know the 20" tires will cost more, but nowhere near the cost of 17" tires + 17" wheels...

 

yeah 265s here but they are on 17x8 with 5 inch backspacing cragar soft 8 blacks. Way too small, im looking for atz's in 35 when i get back.

 

If you get the 31.5 tire you will kick yourself every time you walk out to your truck and see those little donuts on there.

 

Agreed, it's just like a chic, once you had one of a certain size, you'll never be satisfied with smaller...

 

Yeah, I bought my truck in June and it has the factory 17's. It had the Goodyear 265's on it. The first thing my brother's wife said when she saw my truck was "It needs bigger tires", and that's coming from a city girl!!!

I put some 285 Toyo Open Country AT's on it, and now it looks much better.

 

My Hankooks I thought were wearing fast but at 15K not much wear - I hope they last 50K let alone 70. I run the Remmington Mud Brutes on my 72 and they last an easy 60K, My third set so far. I loose my tires at a bit less than 50% as I depend on mine in the mountains.

Forgot to mention I got a kill deal on the Hankooks at $200ea, last time the brutes were just $145ea but that was a few years ago.

 

don't really like the 20s. I like the look of 17's or 18's better. some of the places around here can't even service 20s, and I want black rims.

So it's stick with the 20 crap looking chromes, or get black 17s or 18s.

tire places around here don't even have my tire size in stock, and said can't get it in the next few days cuz of the break. I might be going up north without a spare after all...

 

Yeah, I hear ya. The tire chain stores here in central Fl. seem to stop at puny little 235's! Luckily I'm 35 miles or so from Orlando and there are a few places like 4 Wheel Parts that cater to the bigger tire crowd.
There has got to be some specialty 4x4 shops in/around a huge city like Chicago. Used to be you'd pay top dollar at places like that, but since our good friend Al Gore invented the Internet, most places like that are forced to be competitive.
You need to do something, 'Feej, you know damn well it's the time you take a trip without a spare that you're gonna need it...

 

yea, i know it. that's an absolute final option.

17" rims and tires aren't going to work. they said they probably wouldn't get them before next week friday...bullsh!t available in 24 hours

i might be following dog's recommendation sooner than I thought. Found 1 store 45 miles away that has a set of cooper zeons in stock for the 20s, at least the web site says so.

Luckily it's only 10 minutes from my sister's house. They closed today, hopefully will have them in on friday.