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Sidewall

165/80R15

165 mm across the tread, a sidewall 80% of that — 132 mm — on a 15-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 25.4 inches tall.

132 mm sidewall645 mm · 25.4"
Sidewall
5.20"
132 mm
Overall
25.4"
645.0 mm
Circumference
79.8"
2.026 m
Revs per mile
794
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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It mounts on a rim between 4.5" and 6" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 158 mm across at the narrow end and 173 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 25.4×6.5R15 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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

2 of them name what let go, and it is most often blowout. Cheng shin is named more than any other brand.

What let goComplaints
blowout2
not stated2

Where the wheel is named, 2 of 2 were on the rear, and 0 on the front.

What fits instead

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Same 15-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
155/85R1525.4" -0.1 %-0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
175/75R1525.3" -0.2 %-0.8 mm59.9 mphside by side
185/70R1525.2" -0.8 %-2.5 mm59.5 mphside by side
185/75R1525.9" +2.1 %+6.8 mm61.3 mphside by side
155/80R1524.8" -2.5 %-8.0 mm58.5 mphside by side
175/80R1526.0" +2.5 %+8.0 mm61.5 mphside by side
165/75R1524.7" -2.6 %-8.3 mm58.5 mphside by side
165/85R1526.0" +2.6 %+8.3 mm61.5 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.


185/65R16120 mm sidewall — 9% less
195/75R14146 mm sidewall — 11% more
195/60R16117 mm sidewall — 11% less
155/75R16116 mm sidewall — 12% less
175/70R16123 mm sidewall — 7% less
185/80R14148 mm sidewall — 12% more

Tires graded in this size

Longest-lasting tread first. The grade is set by the maker and checked by regulators.


TireTreadwearWet grip
Americus Touring Plus500A
Sumitomo Mach 1 R201500A
Nexen SB-802320A
Classic CPT08 Classic 87T ALL-SEASON280B
Multi-Mile Classic All Season280B

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
155/85R1530.0 mph50.0 mph69.9 mph9,992
175/75R1529.9 mph49.9 mph69.8 mph9,977
185/70R1529.8 mph49.6 mph69.5 mph9,922
185/75R1530.6 mph51.0 mph71.5 mph10,209
155/80R1529.3 mph48.8 mph68.3 mph9,752