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Sidewall

225/55R21

225 mm across the tread, a sidewall 55% of that — 124 mm — on a 21-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 30.7 inches tall.

124 mm sidewall781 mm · 30.7"
Sidewall
4.87"
124 mm
Overall
30.7"
780.9 mm
Circumference
96.6"
2.453 m
Revs per mile
656
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 30.7×8.9R21 — 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
245/50R2130.6" -0.3 %-1.3 mm59.8 mphside by side
215/60R2131.2" +1.3 %+5.3 mm60.8 mphside by side
215/55R2130.3" -1.4 %-5.5 mm59.2 mphside by side
235/55R2131.2" +1.4 %+5.5 mm60.8 mphside by side
235/50R2130.3" -1.6 %-6.3 mm59.0 mphside by side
245/55R2131.6" +2.8 %+11.0 mm61.7 mphside by side
225/50R2129.9" -2.9 %-11.3 mm58.3 mphside by side
225/60R2131.6" +2.9 %+11.3 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.


245/45R22110 mm sidewall — 11% less
225/60R20135 mm sidewall — 9% more
225/50R22113 mm sidewall — 9% less
245/55R20135 mm sidewall — 9% more
205/65R20133 mm sidewall — 8% more
215/65R20140 mm sidewall — 13% 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
245/50R2129.9 mph49.8 mph69.8 mph9,968
215/60R2130.4 mph50.7 mph70.9 mph10,134
215/55R2129.6 mph49.3 mph69.0 mph9,859
235/55R2130.4 mph50.7 mph71.0 mph10,141
235/50R2129.5 mph49.2 mph68.9 mph9,840