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Sidewall

235/50R17

235 mm across the tread, a sidewall 50% of that — 118 mm — on a 17-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 26.3 inches tall.

118 mm sidewall667 mm · 26.3"
Sidewall
4.63"
118 mm
Overall
26.3"
666.8 mm
Circumference
82.5"
2.095 m
Revs per mile
768
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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It mounts on a rim between 6.5" and 8.5" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 225 mm across at the narrow end and 245 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 26.3×9.3R17 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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5 drivers have filed a complaint. 0 of them ended in a crash, and nobody was hurt. Nobody died.

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

What let goComplaints
tread separation4
out of round1

Where the wheel is named, 3 of 5 were on the front — the end that steers.

What fits instead

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Same 17-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
215/55R1726.3" +0.2 %+0.8 mm60.1 mphside by side
255/45R1726.0" -0.8 %-2.8 mm59.5 mphside by side
225/50R1725.9" -1.5 %-5.0 mm59.1 mphside by side
245/50R1726.6" +1.5 %+5.0 mm60.9 mphside by side
225/55R1726.7" +1.9 %+6.3 mm61.1 mphside by side
245/45R1725.7" -2.2 %-7.3 mm58.7 mphside by side
215/50R1725.5" -3.0 %-10.0 mm58.2 mphside by side
255/50R1727.0" +3.0 %+10.0 mm61.8 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.


235/55R16129 mm sidewall — 10% more
235/45R18106 mm sidewall — 10% less
215/60R16129 mm sidewall — 10% more
265/40R18106 mm sidewall — 10% less
205/50R18103 mm sidewall — 13% less
265/50R16133 mm sidewall — 13% more

Tires graded in this size

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


TireTreadwearWet grip
Firestone FIREHAWK LH500AA
Toyo Crusade HP500A
Vanderbilt Strada II500A
BLACKHAWK STREET-H HU02400AA
Vredestein ADVAN S.4.400AA
Yokohama S.DRIVE300AA
Winda ADVAN Sport180AA

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
215/55R1730.1 mph50.1 mph70.2 mph10,022
255/45R1729.8 mph49.6 mph69.4 mph9,918
225/50R1729.6 mph49.3 mph69.0 mph9,850
245/50R1730.4 mph50.7 mph71.0 mph10,150
225/55R1730.6 mph50.9 mph71.3 mph10,187