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Sidewall

265/65R16

265 mm across the tread, a sidewall 65% of that — 172 mm — on a 16-inch rim. That puts the whole wheel at 29.6 inches tall.

172 mm sidewall751 mm · 29.6"
Sidewall
6.78"
172 mm
Overall
29.6"
750.9 mm
Circumference
92.9"
2.359 m
Revs per mile
682
per minute at 60 mph

What it needs to sit on

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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 29.6×10.4R16 — tall by wide, in inches.

What goes wrong on this size

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5 drivers have filed a complaint. 0 of them ended in a crash, and nobody was hurt. Nobody died.

4 of them name what let go, and it is most often blowout. Michelin is named more than any other brand.

What let goComplaints
blowout2
tread separation2
not stated1

Where the wheel is named, 2 of 4 were on the front — the end that steers.

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
245/70R1629.5" -0.2 %-0.8 mm59.9 mphside by side
285/60R1629.5" -0.3 %-1.3 mm59.8 mphside by side
255/70R1630.1" +1.7 %+6.3 mm61.0 mphside by side
255/65R1629.1" -1.7 %-6.5 mm59.0 mphside by side
275/65R1630.1" +1.7 %+6.5 mm61.0 mphside by side
275/60R1629.0" -1.9 %-7.3 mm58.8 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.


245/65R17159 mm sidewall — 8% less
265/60R17159 mm sidewall — 8% less
265/70R15186 mm sidewall — 8% more
245/75R15184 mm sidewall — 7% more
295/55R17162 mm sidewall — 6% less
285/55R17157 mm sidewall — 9% 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
245/70R1629.9 mph49.9 mph69.9 mph9,980
285/60R1629.9 mph49.8 mph69.8 mph9,967
255/70R1630.5 mph50.8 mph71.2 mph10,166
255/65R1629.5 mph49.1 mph68.8 mph9,827
275/65R1630.5 mph50.9 mph71.2 mph10,173