I completely understand, but it was pretty easy for me to justify the larger tires once I actually looked at the cost of gas.
We will probably only drive the truck 8500 miles a year, at the very most and that includes short summer/winter road trips. Average 87 gas is around $3.00 around here (it has actually been a lot less, but regular is creeping up to around $2.90 right now). At 16.5 MPG, cost of gas a year would be around $1550 a year [(8500 mi/16.5 MPG)*$3.00 per Gal]... 14 MPG will be around $1850 a year [(8500 mi/14 MPG)*$3.00 per Gal]. The extra $300 over the course of a year is less than $30 a month. People tend to pay more for things they think look cool, even if those things aren't quite the best people can get. That has been the marketing model for Apple for a few years now, and they are doing just fine. And besides, I can just cut back on Starbucks to cover the extra gas...