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Sidewall

205/85R17

205 mm across the tread, a sidewall 85% of that — 174 mm — on a 17-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 30.7 inches tall.

174 mm sidewall780 mm · 30.7"
Sidewall
6.86"
174 mm
Overall
30.7"
780.3 mm
Circumference
96.5"
2.451 m
Revs per mile
657
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 30.7×8.1R17 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

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Same 17-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
215/80R1730.5" -0.6 %-2.3 mm59.7 mphside by side
225/75R1730.3" -1.4 %-5.5 mm59.2 mphside by side
225/80R1731.2" +1.5 %+5.8 mm60.9 mphside by side
195/85R1730.1" -2.2 %-8.5 mm58.7 mphside by side
215/85R1731.4" +2.2 %+8.5 mm61.3 mphside by side
205/80R1729.9" -2.6 %-10.3 mm58.4 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.


215/75R18161 mm sidewall — 7% less
235/80R16188 mm sidewall — 8% more
205/80R18164 mm sidewall — 6% less
235/70R18165 mm sidewall — 6% less
225/70R18158 mm sidewall — 10% less
215/85R16183 mm sidewall — 5% more

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
215/80R1729.8 mph49.7 mph69.6 mph9,942
225/75R1729.6 mph49.3 mph69.0 mph9,859
225/80R1730.4 mph50.7 mph71.0 mph10,147
195/85R1729.3 mph48.9 mph68.5 mph9,782
215/85R1730.7 mph51.1 mph71.5 mph10,218