You are in Arkansas, I don't know what your weather is like, up here in Canada, I'd think you would be silly not to get a hard top and run in the winter (just my opinion). So think about that if you are looking at new.

To answer your question I got the dual top option on my 98 TJ. The hardtop is not that hard to switch, it's not heavy just awkward, you can always make some sort of lift if you have a garage. If I had to do all over again, I would still get the dual top. If you just get the soft top, you have to pay extra for full hard doors, if you just get the hard top you get the doors, but if you decide to get a softtop later you have to buy extra hardware, at least on a TJ. For $850 CDN I got the dual top option, made sense to me.

Rob