Tire Width Question

I have a question about tire width. I will eventually put a 33" tire on my cherokee. Some manufacturers offer a 33" tire in 10.5 width and 12.5 width. Wheel width will be 8".

What are the pros/cons of each width i.e. 10.5 versus 12.5? This is what I can think of....

narrower tire:
more traction (pro)
less rolling resistance (pro)
lighter (pro)
less floatation (con)
less surface area for traction on irregular shaped objects i.e. rocks (con)
easier to fit on car (pro)
won't hold air as well at lower pressures (con)

These are just my thoughts, but I could be wrong on above assumptions....

Narrow tire having more traction? I would think wider would, more surface area contacting the ground. You'd probably be more happy with the wider tire. My 12.50's fit just as good a the 10.50's I had before. My .02.

I was debating the same thing. Go and look at the 2 tires side by side. I did this with the BFG MT's and I was amazed how different the 2 treads were. The 12.5 had way larger tread blocks and the blocks were also deeper. There was quite a difference in price when you are getting all 4 but I am going with the 12.5's. A good tire place will pull them out and a even better one will mount them and put them both on your vehicle if you want to see how they look.

As for more traction it depends what you are going to be going through or over. ex. Deep wet snow/mud the wider the better because you can go over a lot but with a little snow that narrow tire will put more weight on a smaller footprint and go right to the ground to get traction. At least that is how I look at it. Hope this helps you a little.

i run 33x10.50's and love it. i live in western washington so we don't rock crawl, but it does well in the snow and mud, and it's nice having a narrower tire because it doesn't follow the ruts in the highway and wander as much.
they brake faster and accelerate faster than when i had 33x12.50's. the 12.50's would rub alittle at full flex enough to cut the tires alittle. i'm running a dpg 5 inch rubicon lift with acos spacers. fenders are cut-out as well . for me it was a no brainer going with the 10.50 bfg mt. i like my pizza cutters, and people might give you shit about it, but i still wheel the piss out of mine and go places much larger tires can't. my backspacing is 4.00 if that helps.