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Sidewall

205/85R15

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 85% of that — 174 mm — on a 15-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 28.7 inches tall.

174 mm sidewall730 mm · 28.7"
Sidewall
6.86"
174 mm
Overall
28.7"
729.5 mm
Circumference
90.2"
2.292 m
Revs per mile
702
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 28.7×8.1R15 — tall by wide, in inches.

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
215/80R1528.5" -0.6 %-2.3 mm59.6 mphside by side
225/75R1528.3" -1.5 %-5.5 mm59.1 mphside by side
225/80R1529.2" +1.6 %+5.8 mm60.9 mphside by side
195/85R1528.1" -2.3 %-8.5 mm58.6 mphside by side
215/85R1529.4" +2.3 %+8.5 mm61.4 mphside by side
205/80R1527.9" -2.8 %-10.3 mm58.3 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.


215/75R16161 mm sidewall — 7% less
235/80R14188 mm sidewall — 8% more
205/80R16164 mm sidewall — 6% less
235/70R16165 mm sidewall — 6% less
225/70R16158 mm sidewall — 10% less
195/85R16166 mm sidewall — 5% 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
215/80R1529.8 mph49.7 mph69.6 mph9,938
225/75R1529.5 mph49.2 mph68.9 mph9,849
225/80R1530.5 mph50.8 mph71.1 mph10,158
195/85R1529.3 mph48.8 mph68.4 mph9,767
215/85R1530.7 mph51.2 mph71.6 mph10,233