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Taylor95,
I have experimented with tire sizes and tread patterns many times on several 4x4 vehicles, and I have found the most important items for me to be: tread pattern, tread width, and tire diameter in that order. I had nominal 34” tires (255/85R16 Cooper Discoverers) on the vehicle until this August when I put nominal 32” tires (235/85R16 Michelin Defenders) on it, the defenders get better MPG despite the tire gearing loss. I am not aware of any tires with similar highly siped tread and narrow width in a larger diameter than these. I hate running aggressive blocky off-road tires on the highway for a daily driver, they do not perform well. These Michelin tires work well off-road, as long as you do not get into mud where they do not shine. I will probably end up maintaining two sets of tires to be able to swap back and forth for dedicated off-road trips, as I have done on my Tacoma. I do use my vehicles off-road on a regular basis. The Suburban is eventually going to be an expedition-style exploring/camping rig, but first I must get it reliable, functional, and economical to drive.
It is not currently a turbo, I removed the turbo when I put in the newer engine. Against popular opinion, my read of the BSCF and torque curve maps for 6.5L indirect injection diesels leads me to believe the naturally aspirated engine better fits my use case. The 6.5L is not the most efficient diesel engine, just about any direct injection diesel is more efficient, however I chose this engine for other reasons which are documented in the first few posts in this thread. If this project died and I started over, I would probably make different choices today.
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