One of the bad sides to long travel suspension is that it takes longer to for your toy to dig down so as to sit on the frame which makes you to have to dig deeper to get the wheels uncovered

. Then you have to dig slopes to drive out.
Remember that pulling both handles on the turning brakes or light foot pressure on the foot pedal can turn an open diff, if you have one, into something closer to a locker; e.g., both tiires working together.
When I switched away from paddles (1300+ mounted on 15 X 12 AL rims which were a big inprovement over the steel 15 X 15 rims) and over to Desert Tracs (the same 15 x 12 AL rims) I did notice some differences right away:
1) a smoother ride on hard ground/pavement (paddles are bouncy and rough riding on that kind of surface,
2) a loss of traction compared to the paddleswhen airing them down to the 7#s of air pressure that I used on the wider paddles. When I dropped down to the manufacture's recomendation of 5#s, that made all the difference in the world. At 4#s I started to lose air out of the tires.
The change in pressure seemed to negate some of the gearing changes from switching from a stock VW Type 1 IRS to an 091. Maybe it had something to do with diameter change when switching from the soft sidewall to the stiffer (less diameter drop) side wall of the Tracs; I don't know for sure but I stopped having to double clutch into first just before reaching the top of some of the dunes that I didn't have do before the transaxle change.
I was surprised that on one occasion, when I got caught in a "sand flow" (more like a mud slide) that I was able get out of the predicamet by using the turning brakes together with keeping my foot on the gas and ignoring the angle I was traveling at in this "facing" of the dune situation. The Desert Tracs did the job that I am not sure paddles would have with the tires completly covered with sand. I think the paddle tires would have bogged down in this situation.
3) The Desert Tracs have a stiffer sidewall and with no air in them they still support the weight of my buggy. They also make all-terrain tread pattern that I have not tried but is supposed to work well in the sand and on hard pack (not an advertizement for the makers of the tires). We see all-terrain tires on vehicles once-in-a-while and they do OK but not as well as tires designed for softer surfaces. I have noticed that tire places around the area where we ride seem to be carrying more of the dual purpose tires now days; a step up from the ones like I ride on.
For what its worth.
Lee
Corrected a spelling and some missing words