the vehicle's weight is incredibly important for size of diff needed, if you were to put a 9" under a deuce and a half, it's going to blow, because it's way too small for that much weight, but conversely, you put a 9" under a miata, you probably couldn't put a big enough motor, and tires to blow that diff, it just doesn't weigh enough! same goes for our trucks, the 8.8 is a great diff, and the 9 is just that much better... I'm with the masses, I think for your purposes, the 9" would be a much better bet for you, it will cost about the same, will be almost as strong for the vehicle it's going under. and weigh considerably less, which means less fuel burned. This is a comparison made for drag racing, but it transfers over to daily driving. for every 0.1 second you shave off your quarter mile time, you need to add 10hp, remove 100lbs of stationary weight, or 10lbs of rotational weight, i forget how unsprung weight factors in, i think it's somewhere between rotational and stationary, closer to the rotational factor... essentially, if you were to add 100lbs to your axle, you would probably lose a good half second of time in the quarter mile... this transfers DIRECTLY to fuel economy...
that being said, the 10.25 is a great diff too, it's good enough for the superduty... no one is going to ridicule you for putting it on your truck, if you decide to, we're just trying to give you every angle to look at before you decide, so you can make the most informed choice
Welcome Visitor! Please take a few seconds and 
lol
