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Sidewall

205/55R15

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 55% of that — 113 mm — on a 15-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 23.9 inches tall.

113 mm sidewall607 mm · 23.9"
Sidewall
4.44"
113 mm
Overall
23.9"
606.5 mm
Circumference
75.0"
1.905 m
Revs per mile
845
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 23.9×8.1R15 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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

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

What let goComplaints
tread separation5
blister1
blowout1

Where the wheel is named, 6 of 7 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
225/50R1523.9" -0.1 %-0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
185/60R1523.7" -0.6 %-1.8 mm59.7 mphside by side
195/60R1524.2" +1.4 %+4.3 mm60.8 mphside by side
215/50R1523.5" -1.7 %-5.3 mm59.0 mphside by side
195/55R1523.4" -1.8 %-5.5 mm58.9 mphside by side
215/55R1524.3" +1.8 %+5.5 mm61.1 mphside by side
185/65R1524.5" +2.5 %+7.5 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.


225/45R16101 mm sidewall — 10% less
195/65R14127 mm sidewall — 12% more
185/55R16102 mm sidewall — 10% less
225/55R14124 mm sidewall — 10% more
205/50R16103 mm sidewall — 9% less
205/60R14123 mm sidewall — 9% more

Tires graded in this size

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


TireTreadwearWet grip
Americus Sport HP500A
Telstar Mach 4 R302500A
Yokohama AVID H4s/V4s500AA
Nexen RADIAL N2000440A
Falken ZE502420A
Goodride H600360A
Yokohama S.DRIVE300AA

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
225/50R1530.0 mph50.0 mph69.9 mph9,992
185/60R1529.8 mph49.7 mph69.6 mph9,942
195/60R1530.4 mph50.7 mph71.0 mph10,140
215/50R1529.5 mph49.1 mph68.8 mph9,827
195/55R1529.5 mph49.1 mph68.7 mph9,819