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Sidewall

225/50R16

225 mm across the tread, a sidewall 50% of that — 113 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 24.9 inches tall.

113 mm sidewall631 mm · 24.9"
Sidewall
4.43"
113 mm
Overall
24.9"
631.4 mm
Circumference
78.1"
1.984 m
Revs per mile
811
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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It mounts on a rim between 6" and 8.5" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 213 mm across at the narrow end and 238 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 24.9×8.9R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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13 drivers have filed a complaint. 2 of them ended in a crash, hurting 2 people. Nobody died.

11 of them name what let go, and it is most often tread separation. Goodyear is named more than any other brand.

What let goComplaints
tread separation5
blowout5
road hazard1
not stated2

Where the wheel is named, 9 of 10 were on the rear, and 1 on the front.

What fits instead

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Same 16-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
205/55R1624.9" +0.1 %+0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
245/45R1624.7" -0.7 %-2.3 mm59.6 mphside by side
215/50R1624.5" -1.6 %-5.0 mm59.0 mphside by side
235/50R1625.3" +1.6 %+5.0 mm61.0 mphside by side
215/55R1625.3" +1.8 %+5.8 mm61.1 mphside by side
235/45R1624.3" -2.1 %-6.8 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.


225/55R15124 mm sidewall — 10% more
225/45R17101 mm sidewall — 10% less
195/65R15127 mm sidewall — 13% more
245/40R1798 mm sidewall — 13% less
205/60R15123 mm sidewall — 9% more
255/40R17102 mm sidewall — 9% less

Tires graded in this size

Longest-lasting tread first. The grade is set by the maker and checked by regulators.


TireTreadwearWet grip
Delta ESTEEM XLE700A
Montgomery OVATION700A
Granada GRANADA Touring HP520A
Tempra Mach 4 R302500A
Yokohama AVID H4s/V4s500AA
Multi-Mile Aspen Touring A/S440A
Nexen RADIAL N2000440A
Doral SDL50400A
Neutral CLASSE PREMIERE CP641400A
Vredestein ADVAN S.4.400AA
Goodride SV308360A
Cordovan GRAND SPIRIT AQUA FLOW GTX H340A

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
205/55R1630.0 mph50.0 mph70.1 mph10,008
245/45R1629.8 mph49.6 mph69.5 mph9,929
215/50R1629.5 mph49.2 mph68.9 mph9,842
235/50R1630.5 mph50.8 mph71.1 mph10,158
215/55R1630.5 mph50.9 mph71.3 mph10,182