Skip to content
Sidewall

245/50R21

245 mm across the tread, a sidewall 50% of that — 123 mm — on a 21-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 30.6 inches tall.

123 mm sidewall778 mm · 30.6"
Sidewall
4.82"
123 mm
Overall
30.6"
778.4 mm
Circumference
96.3"
2.445 m
Revs per mile
658
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

i

It mounts on a rim between 7" and 9" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 235 mm across at the narrow end and 255 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 30.6×9.6R21 — tall by wide, in inches.

What fits instead

i

Same 21-inch rim, height within 3%. Past that the speedometer starts lying and things begin to rub.


SizeHeightRide heightSpeedo reads 60, you doCompare
225/55R2130.7" +0.3 %+1.3 mm60.2 mphside by side
265/45R2130.4" -0.8 %-3.3 mm59.5 mphside by side
235/50R2130.3" -1.3 %-5.0 mm59.2 mphside by side
255/50R2131.0" +1.3 %+5.0 mm60.8 mphside by side
235/55R2131.2" +1.7 %+6.8 mm61.0 mphside by side
255/45R2130.0" -2.0 %-7.8 mm58.8 mphside by side
225/50R2129.9" -2.6 %-10.0 mm58.5 mphside by side
265/50R2131.4" +2.6 %+10.0 mm61.5 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.


225/60R20135 mm sidewall — 10% more
275/40R22110 mm sidewall — 10% less
245/55R20135 mm sidewall — 10% more
245/45R22110 mm sidewall — 10% less
275/50R20138 mm sidewall — 12% more
265/50R20133 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
225/55R2130.1 mph50.2 mph70.2 mph10,032
265/45R2129.7 mph49.6 mph69.4 mph9,916
235/50R2129.6 mph49.4 mph69.1 mph9,872
255/50R2130.4 mph50.6 mph70.9 mph10,128
235/55R2130.5 mph50.9 mph71.2 mph10,173