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Sidewall

165/85R16

165 mm across the tread, a sidewall 85% of that — 140 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 27.0 inches tall.

140 mm sidewall687 mm · 27.0"
Sidewall
5.52"
140 mm
Overall
27.0"
686.9 mm
Circumference
85.0"
2.158 m
Revs per mile
746
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 27.0×6.5R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

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
175/80R1627.0" -0.1 %-0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
185/75R1626.9" -0.4 %-1.5 mm59.7 mphside by side
185/80R1627.7" +2.3 %+7.8 mm61.4 mphside by side
165/80R1626.4" -2.4 %-8.3 mm58.6 mphside by side
175/85R1627.7" +2.5 %+8.5 mm61.5 mphside by side
175/75R1626.3" -2.6 %-9.0 mm58.4 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.


195/65R17127 mm sidewall — 10% less
185/70R17130 mm sidewall — 8% less
195/80R15156 mm sidewall — 11% more
155/80R17124 mm sidewall — 12% less
175/75R17131 mm sidewall — 6% less
175/85R15149 mm sidewall — 6% 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
175/80R1630.0 mph50.0 mph69.9 mph9,993
185/75R1629.9 mph49.8 mph69.7 mph9,956
185/80R1630.7 mph51.1 mph71.6 mph10,226
165/80R1629.3 mph48.8 mph68.3 mph9,760
175/85R1630.7 mph51.2 mph71.7 mph10,247