I like the look of the KM3s a lot. I dont know the weight of the nittos, but I think the km3s are less weight. They are lighter than the wildpeaks for certain.
Yeah I DD with them. They are not nearly as noisy as the falcon wildpeak MTs I had. Possibly quieter then the Goodyear wrangler duractrac ATs too. I love them. They are a very strong tire, although I only hear good about Nittos as well.
Do you have some of the route mapped as .gpx or kml for gaia or similar programs? I'm getting excited. I'll meet up with the group in phoenix before we head up north.