About two or three years ago, I saw an XJ on what looked like 33x8.5. Almost looked like the width of say an old army jeep from the 50’s. Not sure of the tire type as it looked modern. It looked good but obviously different then the meatier tire setups of a lot of lifted Cherokees. I liked it.

Anyway, with a 3 inch lift and a thinner tire, I assume you might not need too much backspacing to handle full turns without rubbing. I know there would be some tradeoffs on ground coverage vs a 12.5 or 10.5. But it would also be lighter so maybe less wear and tear on other components.

Anyone ever run a much thinner tire with a larger diameter?

 

It might have had 7.5R16 light truck tires on it. They are ≈32" tall and ≈8.5" wide. Click Tire Rack to see an example.

7.5 x 16 was a common tire size on pickup trucks 60 years ago. The size has sorta gone out of favor. They are mostly made as trailer tires and not suitable for driving tires. The Goodrich tire at tire rack is a tire for a Jeep. You might like it!

I run 255/75R17 tires on my XJ. They are 10" wide x 32" tall. With careful management of the wheel offset I have not rubbing on a 4" lift. In lots of conditions a skinny tire has better traction.

 

If all you care about is not hitting the control arms at full lock, you can adjust the turn-stops on the spindles. Getting tires to fit without cutting the fenders is another story. Its pretty hard to get adequate high flex clearance for any tire larger than 31" without some kind of fender mods, irrespective of tire width and rim offset/BS. If you are aiming for a 32" tire, I encourage you to look at 265/75-16 tires using 16x8 wheels with 4.5" BS. This tire size is generally more narrow than their specification.