Skip to content
Sidewall

215/45R20

215 mm across the tread, a sidewall 45% of that — 97 mm — on a 20-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 27.6 inches tall.

96.8 mm sidewall702 mm · 27.6"
Sidewall
3.81"
97 mm
Overall
27.6"
701.5 mm
Circumference
86.8"
2.204 m
Revs per mile
730
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

i

It mounts on a rim between 6" and 8" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 205 mm across at the narrow end and 225 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 27.6×8.5R20 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

i

Same 20-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
235/40R2027.4" -0.8 %-2.8 mm59.5 mphside by side
205/45R2027.3" -1.3 %-4.5 mm59.2 mphside by side
225/45R2028.0" +1.3 %+4.5 mm60.8 mphside by side
205/50R2028.1" +1.6 %+5.8 mm61.0 mphside by side
225/40R2027.1" -1.9 %-6.8 mm58.8 mphside by side
235/45R2028.3" +2.6 %+9.0 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.


245/45R19110 mm sidewall — 14% more
245/35R2186 mm sidewall — 11% less
235/35R2182 mm sidewall — 15% less
215/40R2186 mm sidewall — 11% less
215/50R19108 mm sidewall — 11% more
195/55R19107 mm sidewall — 11% 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
235/40R2029.8 mph49.6 mph69.5 mph9,922
205/45R2029.6 mph49.4 mph69.1 mph9,872
225/45R2030.4 mph50.6 mph70.9 mph10,128
205/50R2030.5 mph50.8 mph71.1 mph10,164
225/40R2029.4 mph49.0 mph68.7 mph9,808