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Sidewall

205/45R20

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 45% of that — 92 mm — on a 20-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 27.3 inches tall.

92.3 mm sidewall693 mm · 27.3"
Sidewall
3.63"
92 mm
Overall
27.3"
692.5 mm
Circumference
85.7"
2.176 m
Revs per mile
740
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 27.3×8.1R20 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

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Same 20-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
225/40R2027.1" -0.6 %-2.3 mm59.6 mphside by side
215/45R2027.6" +1.3 %+4.5 mm60.8 mphside by side
215/40R2026.8" -1.8 %-6.3 mm58.9 mphside by side
225/45R2028.0" +2.6 %+9.0 mm61.6 mphside by side
205/40R2026.5" -3.0 %-10.3 mm58.2 mphside by side
205/50R2028.1" +3.0 %+10.3 mm61.8 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.


235/45R19106 mm sidewall — 15% more
225/35R2179 mm sidewall — 15% less
195/55R19107 mm sidewall — 16% more
205/50R19103 mm sidewall — 11% more
215/50R19108 mm sidewall — 17% more
235/35R2182 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
225/40R2029.8 mph49.7 mph69.5 mph9,935
215/45R2030.4 mph50.6 mph70.9 mph10,130
215/40R2029.5 mph49.1 mph68.7 mph9,819
225/45R2030.8 mph51.3 mph71.8 mph10,260
205/40R2029.1 mph48.5 mph67.9 mph9,704