There are aftermarket engine rebuild kits for the 12ht platform in Australia like there are for SBC 350s here in the states. So they will stick around. But your right, not a lot of love from Toyota in that department sadly..
You should look into the Toyo Open Country R/Ts. Better street performance than M/Ts but still more aggressive than A/Ts. Significantly cheaper as well...
Dude if you 3-link the front that would be so sick. I want to do that eventually so that 35s will look normal. Im guessing frenched chevy...
KM2s are solid tires. Mine have held up for quite a while (40,000 ish) and still have some life. They wear good if rotated every 5k miles. Never have had a flat (knock on wood)!
I have nothing against MTRs but one of my jeep buddies has blown out 2 in the past couple years... Both were...
I doubt they are any different. I'm leaning towards the 80 route, I just am not looking forward to redoing my traction bar/ spring mounts.
I need to do something soon though, because I'm getting 37s and drum brakes in the rear won't cut it. Heck they even suck with smaller tires.
I shattered my OEM birfs literally 10 minutes into wheeling when I installed the locker in the front. You should be fine w/ smaller tires, but that thing does put a lot of stress on the front end. Makes getting up/around/through obstacles on the trail effortless though which is worth it.
Make sure that when you go around corners w/ the aussie in the rear that you don't hammer the gas. When I had on in the rear it was like riding a bucking bronco.