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Sidewall

205/45R18

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 45% of that — 92 mm — on a 18-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 25.3 inches tall.

92.3 mm sidewall642 mm · 25.3"
Sidewall
3.63"
92 mm
Overall
25.3"
641.7 mm
Circumference
79.4"
2.016 m
Revs per mile
798
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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It mounts on a rim between 5.5" and 7.5" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 195 mm across at the narrow end and 215 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 25.3×8.1R18 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

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Same 18-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
185/50R1825.3" +0.1 %+0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
225/40R1825.1" -0.7 %-2.3 mm59.6 mphside by side
195/45R1824.9" -1.4 %-4.5 mm59.2 mphside by side
215/45R1825.6" +1.4 %+4.5 mm60.8 mphside by side
195/50R1825.7" +1.6 %+5.3 mm61.0 mphside by side
215/40R1824.8" -1.9 %-6.3 mm58.8 mphside by side
185/45R1824.6" -2.8 %-9.0 mm58.3 mphside by side
225/45R1826.0" +2.8 %+9.0 mm61.7 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.


175/60R17105 mm sidewall — 14% more
235/45R17106 mm sidewall — 15% more
225/35R1979 mm sidewall — 15% less
195/40R1978 mm sidewall — 15% less
195/55R17107 mm sidewall — 16% more
205/40R1982 mm sidewall — 11% less

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
185/50R1830.0 mph50.0 mph70.1 mph10,008
225/40R1829.8 mph49.6 mph69.5 mph9,930
195/45R1829.6 mph49.3 mph69.0 mph9,860
215/45R1830.4 mph50.7 mph71.0 mph10,140
195/50R1830.5 mph50.8 mph71.1 mph10,164