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Sidewall

205/55R18

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 55% of that — 113 mm — on a 18-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 26.9 inches tall.

113 mm sidewall683 mm · 26.9"
Sidewall
4.44"
113 mm
Overall
26.9"
682.7 mm
Circumference
84.4"
2.145 m
Revs per mile
750
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 26.9×8.1R18 — 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
225/50R1826.9" -0.1 %-0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
185/60R1826.7" -0.5 %-1.8 mm59.7 mphside by side
195/60R1827.2" +1.2 %+4.3 mm60.7 mphside by side
215/50R1826.5" -1.5 %-5.3 mm59.1 mphside by side
195/55R1826.4" -1.6 %-5.5 mm59.0 mphside by side
215/55R1827.3" +1.6 %+5.5 mm61.0 mphside by side
185/65R1827.5" +2.2 %+7.5 mm61.3 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.


225/45R19101 mm sidewall — 10% less
195/65R17127 mm sidewall — 12% more
225/55R17124 mm sidewall — 10% more
205/50R19103 mm sidewall — 9% less
205/60R17123 mm sidewall — 9% more
195/50R1998 mm sidewall — 14% 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
225/50R1830.0 mph50.0 mph69.9 mph9,993
185/60R1829.8 mph49.7 mph69.6 mph9,949
195/60R1830.4 mph50.6 mph70.9 mph10,125
215/50R1829.5 mph49.2 mph68.9 mph9,846
195/55R1829.5 mph49.2 mph68.9 mph9,839