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Sidewall

215/50R21

215 mm across the tread, a sidewall 50% of that — 108 mm — on a 21-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 29.5 inches tall.

108 mm sidewall748 mm · 29.5"
Sidewall
4.23"
108 mm
Overall
29.5"
748.4 mm
Circumference
92.6"
2.351 m
Revs per mile
684
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 29.5×8.5R21 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

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Same 21-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
235/45R2129.3" -0.5 %-1.8 mm59.7 mphside by side
225/50R2129.9" +1.3 %+5.0 mm60.8 mphside by side
225/45R2129.0" -1.7 %-6.3 mm59.0 mphside by side
235/50R2130.3" +2.7 %+10.0 mm61.6 mphside by side
215/45R2128.6" -2.9 %-10.8 mm58.3 mphside by side
215/55R2130.3" +2.9 %+10.8 mm61.7 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.


235/40R2294 mm sidewall — 13% less
215/55R20118 mm sidewall — 10% more
245/50R20123 mm sidewall — 14% more
235/50R20118 mm sidewall — 9% more
205/60R20123 mm sidewall — 14% more
245/40R2298 mm sidewall — 9% 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
235/45R2129.9 mph49.8 mph69.7 mph9,953
225/50R2130.4 mph50.7 mph70.9 mph10,134
225/45R2129.5 mph49.2 mph68.8 mph9,833
235/50R2130.8 mph51.3 mph71.9 mph10,267
215/45R2129.1 mph48.6 mph68.0 mph9,713