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Sidewall

245/55R16

245 mm across the tread, a sidewall 55% of that — 135 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 26.6 inches tall.

135 mm sidewall676 mm · 26.6"
Sidewall
5.31"
135 mm
Overall
26.6"
675.9 mm
Circumference
83.6"
2.123 m
Revs per mile
758
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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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 26.6×9.6R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

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
225/60R1626.6" +0.1 %+0.3 mm60.0 mphside by side
265/50R1626.4" -0.7 %-2.3 mm59.6 mphside by side
235/55R1626.2" -1.6 %-5.5 mm59.0 mphside by side
255/55R1627.0" +1.6 %+5.5 mm61.0 mphside by side
235/60R1627.1" +1.8 %+6.3 mm61.1 mphside by side
255/50R1626.0" -2.1 %-7.3 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.


245/60R15147 mm sidewall — 9% more
245/50R17123 mm sidewall — 9% less
225/65R15146 mm sidewall — 9% more
265/55R15146 mm sidewall — 8% more
225/55R17124 mm sidewall — 8% less
275/45R17124 mm sidewall — 8% 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
225/60R1630.0 mph50.0 mph70.1 mph10,007
265/50R1629.8 mph49.7 mph69.5 mph9,933
235/55R1629.5 mph49.2 mph68.9 mph9,837
255/55R1630.5 mph50.8 mph71.1 mph10,163
235/60R1630.6 mph50.9 mph71.3 mph10,185