Personally, i think the 13.5 looks a bit better. The 12.5s are tucked in a bit too much for my taste. I'll prolly switch to 13.5s when I burn these 12.5" rubbers off. I think the 13.5" wide might help with traction too for those pushing an extra 100+ ponies.
On the other hand, it's really hard to beat the weight of my 12.5s. I'm running 37" Maxxis Razr MTs on stock non-beadlocks so I'm only like 2-3 lbs heavier than stock 35s with stock beadlocks. Really nice not to have a ton of extra weight there (harder to go/stop/etc).
I raced my bud with a Sandblast a few weeks ago. Both of us have S&B and Predator. He has 38" x13.5" toyo open country MTs on stock beadlocks. He's got an extra 32lbs at each corner. I had 1.5 other people in my car and he was alone. I also had about 400lbs more stuff in my truck. After running from 0-94mph, I had about 3 full truck lengths on him at the end... gotta think the extra rolling mass played a huge part in that lol especially since I had about 650lbs more weight in my truck.