I'm thinking about getting a set of mud tires; the trails I run are mainly packed to loose dirt and of course mud when it's been raining. I want the jeep to get through mud better. Currently I go out with my dd 32x11.50x15 BFG AT's. I've heard several times that the smaller contact patches of more narrow tires can help in some circumstances (more pounds of down-force per square inch of contact is the standard reason given).

I noticed Super Swamper makes a tire in 32x9.50. Would this sort of tire enhance mud performance? Or does the 'narrower is better' philosophy only apply to rock-crawling or other off-roading scenarios?

as long as you can 'dig' through the mud to get the hardpacked underground, the narrow tire beign better stands true
Choose a tire that fits your type of wheeling and one you like. A lot of times people choose a narrow tire also to keep the tires under the fender(flares)

Thanks Ice.

A lot of variables to consider:

I've had trouble on both long, slick muddy trails and also gotten stuck recently in a pretty deep mud hole (who knows if I would have made it through with mud tires - surely would have gotten further). Most of the time these trails have detours around the biggest mudholes so maybe I ought to just concentrate on slick-trail performance rather than the mudholes; I don't see myself doing any big time mud-bogging. Would one tire width be better than another with this approach?

I also do encounter the occasional rock-climb on the trails I run - not a big part of my trailin...

Any other thoughts?

once my MT/Rs wear out or are all sliced/ripped beyond repair, I was gonna go with Swamper SXs. But now I'm considering going with the Swamper Q78s which are about 35.5x10.5.
Right in between the 35" MT/Rs and the 36"SXs as far as weight goes and height and a little less wide, but still with Swamper quality side walls

But that doesn't help you in the smaller size, even though Swampers come in a whole bunch of odd sizes.
You will also have to consider on road driveability though, which with bias ply tires will be less pleasant than with radials

fwiw I ran tsl 32x9.5's for about 2 years on my xj, I loved them in rocks and for digging in when needed, that was also the one bad point - sometime flotation is better I think, only others were on - road handling and noise(not that big a deal)and how tippy the narrow tire/tall sidewall can make you in some spots if you get a bit off camber. just another opinion, I went back to 32x11.5 bfg muds when the heep went back to dd status last month....