Well, technically you didn't ask about the front, you asked about a 10.25. You can use a 15" wheel on the front, but it's not an easy thing. Generally it involves some grinding on the brake calipers to make them fit. Sound like a bad idea? It's a subject of some debate. Some people say they would never do that, others have done it and swear that it's not a problem. The less backspacing the wheels have the less material you'll have to remove from the calipers to make them fit.
yes. back to Johnski as an example, since he has the Ford dual piston calipers up front he runs only 2" BS on his rims, so that means the tires will stick out more than stock...for him likely about 2" more per side (assuming 8" wheel with factory backspacing around 4").
The path I chose was Chevy outers, including single piston caliper ground down some on the top/inner part of the caliper. Had to do this for the front and rear since I run the same caliper/rotor at all 4 corners. As long as you know what you're doing here it's not a big deal. It rightly concerns folks since you are messing with part of the braking system, so you better be careful with what you're doing. Even then I would not recommend this for those wheeling in lots of mud, there is just not enough clearance between the caliper and wheel, and when mud gets in there, it's just annoying when the caliper gets abused by selfcleaning the wheel the whole rest of the day. However, flip side my wheels run stock backspacing, so no sticking out, which is also likely more healthy for wheelbearings/hubs/balljoints.
It's also a dilemma for me since I've been talking to GKR recently about his caddy calipers/ebrake. I want to finally do this, but it means a little grinding again. And Greg, like everyone else it seems like that tries these, found these calipers to be a bit hit-n-miss at first....first one leak like crazy, replaced it, next one was ok, then started leaking one day, replaced it, and he finally has had no issues. Not sure how that would fly with me grinding calipers unless the parts monkey counter folks were clueless when i returned a leaker.
