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Sidewall

205/50R15

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 50% of that — 103 mm — on a 15-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 23.1 inches tall.

103 mm sidewall586 mm · 23.1"
Sidewall
4.04"
103 mm
Overall
23.1"
586.0 mm
Circumference
72.5"
1.841 m
Revs per mile
874
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 23.1×8.1R15 — 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.

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

What let goComplaints
tread separation1
crack1
blister1
out of round1

Where the wheel is named, 2 of 2 were on the front — the end that steers.

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
185/55R1523.0" -0.3 %-0.8 mm59.8 mphside by side
225/45R1523.0" -0.4 %-1.3 mm59.7 mphside by side
195/55R1523.4" +1.6 %+4.8 mm61.0 mphside by side
195/50R1522.7" -1.7 %-5.0 mm59.0 mphside by side
215/50R1523.5" +1.7 %+5.0 mm61.0 mphside by side
215/45R1522.6" -2.0 %-5.8 mm58.8 mphside by side
185/60R1523.7" +2.9 %+8.5 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.


225/40R1690 mm sidewall — 12% less
175/65R14114 mm sidewall — 11% more
195/60R14117 mm sidewall — 14% more
195/45R1688 mm sidewall — 14% less
235/50R14118 mm sidewall — 15% more
175/50R1688 mm sidewall — 15% less

Tires graded in this size

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


TireTreadwearWet grip
Nexen RADIAL N2000440A
Falken ZE502420A
Yokohama AVID T4420A
Neutral CLASSE PREMIERE CP641400A
Yokohama S.DRIVE300AA
Hankook Black Fighter 300080A
Vercelli ADVAN A04860AA

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
185/55R1529.9 mph49.9 mph69.8 mph9,974
225/45R1529.9 mph49.8 mph69.7 mph9,957
195/55R1530.5 mph50.8 mph71.1 mph10,162
195/50R1529.5 mph49.1 mph68.8 mph9,829
215/50R1530.5 mph50.9 mph71.2 mph10,171