Skip to content
Sidewall

265/55R21

265 mm across the tread, a sidewall 55% of that — 146 mm — on a 21-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 32.5 inches tall.

146 mm sidewall825 mm · 32.5"
Sidewall
5.74"
146 mm
Overall
32.5"
824.9 mm
Circumference
102.0"
2.591 m
Revs per mile
621
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

i

It mounts on a rim between 7.5" and 9.5" wide, and the tread follows the rim: roughly 5 mm of section width for every half-inch, so about 255 mm across at the narrow end and 275 mm at the wide one. Written the way lift kits and wheel wells are, it is a 32.5×10.4R21 — 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
245/60R2132.6" +0.3 %+1.3 mm60.2 mphside by side
285/50R2132.2" -0.8 %-3.3 mm59.5 mphside by side
255/55R2132.0" -1.3 %-5.5 mm59.2 mphside by side
275/55R2132.9" +1.3 %+5.5 mm60.8 mphside by side
255/60R2133.0" +1.8 %+7.3 mm61.1 mphside by side
275/50R2131.8" -2.0 %-8.3 mm58.8 mphside by side
245/55R2131.6" -2.7 %-11.0 mm58.4 mphside by side
285/55R2133.3" +2.7 %+11.0 mm61.6 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.


295/45R22133 mm sidewall — 9% less
265/50R22133 mm sidewall — 9% less
265/60R20159 mm sidewall — 9% more
245/65R20159 mm sidewall — 9% more
285/55R20157 mm sidewall — 8% more
245/55R22135 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
245/60R2130.1 mph50.2 mph70.2 mph10,030
285/50R2129.8 mph49.6 mph69.4 mph9,921
255/55R2129.6 mph49.3 mph69.1 mph9,867
275/55R2130.4 mph50.7 mph70.9 mph10,133
255/60R2130.5 mph50.9 mph71.2 mph10,176