Howdy, folks,
The perennial tire question, for which I beg your indulgence after lots of searching and reading. Our T is a stock '97 4x4 5-speed presently with some off-brand LT265/75R16.

We drive mainly across the Southern California deserts and mountains, so it's hundreds of miles on highway at speed, then cool down and pull offroad into, say, Death Valley. We always air down, as low as 15psi (so far) as terrain gets rougher, and air up again with a dinky compressor when we reach pavement. Sometimes there is sand, rarely mud or slickrock, occasional snow, but mainly its jagged rocks and tight spots (for a T) on the jeep trails. So far, no sidewall punctures, but the tread lugs on the edges are getting ripped up.

So, what kind of tires should we get? From what I read so far, bias-plys sound ruled out given the long freeway drives, but I'm not even sure if we should choose among Tirerack's "Off-road Maximum traction" vs "On/Off Road All Terrain". Someone mentioned the Firestone Destination but they make a model in both categories, the M/T and A/T.

I see from the beautiful pictures that some of y'all live out in the West, so maybe you have some comments about your T and tires doing this sort of thing?

Thanks,
-Alex
'97 T100 4x4 5-speed, stock
Lots of desert pinstriping