205/55R16

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 55% of that — 113 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 24.9 inches tall.

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 24.9×8.1R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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276 drivers have filed a complaint. 9 of them ended in a crash, hurting 8 people. Nobody died.

227 of them name what let go, and it is most often blowout. Bridgestone is named more than any other brand.

Where the wheel is named, 135 of 222 were on the front — the end that steers.

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.

Same height, different rim

Bigger rim, same overall height. Sharper steering, harsher ride, and far less rubber between your wheel and the next pothole.

Tires graded in this size

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

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.