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Sidewall

125/70R16

125 mm across the tread, a sidewall 70% of that — 88 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 22.9 inches tall.

87.5 mm sidewall581 mm · 22.9"
Sidewall
3.44"
88 mm
Overall
22.9"
581.4 mm
Circumference
71.9"
1.827 m
Revs per mile
881
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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It mounts on a rim between 3.5" and 4.5" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 120 mm across at the narrow end and 130 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 22.9×4.9R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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10 drivers have filed a complaint. 0 of them ended in a crash, and nobody was hurt. Nobody died.

9 of them name what let go, and it is most often tread separation. Firestone is named more than any other brand.

What let goComplaints
tread separation6
blowout2
blister1
not stated1

Where the wheel is named, 1 of 9 were on the front — the end that steers. 8 gave out as a spare, which is the one nobody checks.

What fits instead

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Same 16-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
135/65R1622.9" +0.1 %+0.3 mm60.1 mphside by side
125/65R1622.4" -2.1 %-6.3 mm58.7 mphside by side
125/75R1623.4" +2.1 %+6.3 mm61.3 mphside by side
145/65R1623.4" +2.3 %+6.8 mm61.4 mphside by side
135/70R1623.4" +2.4 %+7.0 mm61.4 mphside by side

Same height, different rim

Bigger rim, same overall height. Sharper steering, harsher ride, and far less rubber between your wheel and the next pothole.


125/80R15100 mm sidewall — 14% more
155/65R15101 mm sidewall — 15% more
135/75R15101 mm sidewall — 16% more
145/70R15102 mm sidewall — 16% more
145/80R14116 mm sidewall — 33% more
155/75R14116 mm sidewall — 33% more

If you fit something taller

A taller tire covers more ground per turn, so the needle reads low and the odometer counts short. Over ten thousand miles on the dial, the last column is what you really drove.


Fitted insteadReads 30Reads 50Reads 70Real miles per 10,000 shown
135/65R1630.0 mph50.0 mph70.1 mph10,009
125/65R1629.4 mph48.9 mph68.5 mph9,785
125/75R1630.6 mph51.1 mph71.5 mph10,215
145/65R1630.7 mph51.2 mph71.6 mph10,232
135/70R1630.7 mph51.2 mph71.7 mph10,241