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Sidewall

235/85R16

235 mm across the tread, a sidewall 85% of that — 200 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 31.7 inches tall.

200 mm sidewall806 mm · 31.7"
Sidewall
7.86"
200 mm
Overall
31.7"
805.9 mm
Circumference
99.7"
2.532 m
Revs per mile
636
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 31.7×9.3R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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119 drivers have filed a complaint. 3 of them ended in a crash, hurting 6 people. Nobody died.

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

What let goComplaints
tread separation70
blowout36
out of round4
blister3
crack1
not stated5

Where the wheel is named, 56 of 107 were on the front — the end that steers. 2 gave out as a spare, which is the one nobody checks.

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
245/80R1631.4" -0.9 %-3.8 mm59.4 mphside by side
225/85R1631.1" -2.1 %-8.5 mm58.7 mphside by side
255/75R1631.1" -2.1 %-8.5 mm58.7 mphside by side
245/85R1632.4" +2.1 %+8.5 mm61.3 mphside by side
235/80R1630.8" -2.9 %-11.8 mm58.3 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.


235/80R17188 mm sidewall — 6% less
265/70R17186 mm sidewall — 7% less
245/75R17184 mm sidewall — 8% less
245/85R15208 mm sidewall — 4% more
225/85R17191 mm sidewall — 4% less
255/75R17191 mm sidewall — 4% 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
245/80R1629.7 mph49.5 mph69.3 mph9,907
225/85R1629.4 mph48.9 mph68.5 mph9,789
255/75R1629.4 mph48.9 mph68.5 mph9,789
245/85R1630.6 mph51.1 mph71.5 mph10,211
235/80R1629.1 mph48.5 mph68.0 mph9,708