Skip to content
Sidewall

235/55R15

235 mm across the tread, a sidewall 55% of that — 129 mm — on a 15-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 25.2 inches tall.

129 mm sidewall640 mm · 25.2"
Sidewall
5.09"
129 mm
Overall
25.2"
639.5 mm
Circumference
79.1"
2.009 m
Revs per mile
801
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

i

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 25.2×9.3R15 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

i

Same 15-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
215/60R1525.2" -0.1 %-0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
255/50R1525.0" -0.5 %-1.8 mm59.7 mphside by side
225/55R1524.7" -1.7 %-5.5 mm59.0 mphside by side
245/55R1525.6" +1.7 %+5.5 mm61.0 mphside by side
225/60R1525.6" +1.8 %+5.8 mm61.1 mphside by side
245/50R1524.6" -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.


235/50R16118 mm sidewall — 9% less
235/60R14141 mm sidewall — 9% more
205/70R14144 mm sidewall — 11% more
215/55R16118 mm sidewall — 9% less
255/45R16115 mm sidewall — 11% less
215/65R14140 mm sidewall — 8% 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
215/60R1530.0 mph50.0 mph69.9 mph9,992
255/50R1529.8 mph49.7 mph69.6 mph9,945
225/55R1529.5 mph49.1 mph68.8 mph9,828
245/55R1530.5 mph50.9 mph71.2 mph10,172
225/60R1530.5 mph50.9 mph71.3 mph10,180