I certainly do love the sound of the Hemi! My two door Rubicon "2010" is relatively light on 33"s, because it needs to be. I'm in a hilly area of the country too, not Colorado but 5000' mountains and lots of grades to deal with. I tuned it for 93 octane and with the 4:10's it gets decent gas mileage and I towed up to 2000 lbs. 129K miles. It is so quiet and smooth and bullet proof reliable, I don't want to gamble with ruining it. However, I'm an old time enthusiast and that is hard to be cured from.
I agree I would build it on my own, with a kit so I understand it better. The ls is perfect, but if I'm going that route of a GM powertrain I want a 10 speed. The LT is not on the smaller side either. It is lighter though and I would not want to put too much weight over the front axle. Some day, right now I'm completing my 12th year of college payments with four more to go............. Right now it's like buying a new 392 Wrangler every year and then crushing it.......... ha ha They are worth every dime though!
