I'm going to dig around on this topic and this might be a mild firestarter - thoughts on SL vs LT tires? I am looking at the Falken Wildpeak AT4W.
I'm east coast. I don't currently do any off-roading so I can't imagine I'd be getting into aggressive rock crawling from the start. I have a friend with some property that has some trails with some varying terrain, but it was never heavy on needing to get over big rocks. I don't even plan to get a lift in the very near future, but I want to get some wheels and tires sooner than later.
Otherwise I snowboard so I spend as much time as I can in the snow.
I'm leaning towards SL due to my current use but I also don't want to significantly handicap the abilities. The reading I've done on the internet seems to say that the SL should cover any light off-road duty I'll likely encounter.