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Sidewall

215/50R15

215 mm across the tread, a sidewall 50% of that — 108 mm — on a 15-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 23.5 inches tall.

108 mm sidewall596 mm · 23.5"
Sidewall
4.23"
108 mm
Overall
23.5"
596.0 mm
Circumference
73.7"
1.872 m
Revs per mile
860
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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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 23.5×8.5R15 — 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
195/55R1523.4" -0.1 %-0.3 mm59.9 mphside by side
235/45R1523.3" -0.6 %-1.8 mm59.6 mphside by side
205/50R1523.1" -1.7 %-5.0 mm59.0 mphside by side
225/50R1523.9" +1.7 %+5.0 mm61.0 mphside by side
205/55R1523.9" +1.8 %+5.3 mm61.1 mphside by side
225/45R1523.0" -2.1 %-6.3 mm58.7 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.


185/65R14120 mm sidewall — 12% more
235/40R1694 mm sidewall — 13% less
215/45R1697 mm sidewall — 10% less
215/55R14118 mm sidewall — 10% more
185/50R1693 mm sidewall — 14% less
205/45R1692 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
195/55R1530.0 mph50.0 mph69.9 mph9,992
235/45R1529.8 mph49.7 mph69.6 mph9,941
205/50R1529.5 mph49.2 mph68.8 mph9,832
225/50R1530.5 mph50.8 mph71.2 mph10,168
205/55R1530.5 mph50.9 mph71.2 mph10,176