How to Measure Your Tire Rim Size (2024)

FAQs

How to measure a rim for tire size? ›

Luckily, measuring rim width is pretty simple to do! Just take a ruler, yardstick or tape measure and measure the distance from bead seat to bead seat. The rim width is also included in the wheel size, which you can find stamped on the back of the wheel, or in your owner's manual.

Step 1: Place the rim up-right, like it was mounted to a vehicle. Step 2: Going from inside of one bead (lip of the rim) to the inside of the other, measure the width of the rim. Step 3: Multiply width (in inches) by 25.4 (total mm per inch). This will provide you with the first number in your tire size.

Find the information in your vehicle owner's manual in the glove compartment or on the tire information sticker on your driver's side door. Usually those elements contain all the information related to your tire size and specifications as well as the appropriate tire pressure.

Put simply, to find if your wheels will fit your car, measure the distance from your wheel's center point to where it is mounted. This is the offset. Add that to half your wheel's width to find the back space and subtract it to find the front space. Compare this to your wheel well to see if it fits.

After the letter R, a number that indicates the wheel size where it fits. So for the example, P225/45R17 91V, R17 means the tire is made of radial-ply construction and that it fits a 17-inch rim. It's a common knowledge for car owners that tires only fit a wheel that has an identical inner diameter with it.

Your wheels are made up from two parts, the tyres and the rims. Most commonly, rim size refers to the size of the metal rims onto which the tyre is mounted, while tyre size refers to the tyre width that fits around the rim. Wheel size refers to the total size of your wheel, including the rims and the tyre.

Wrong-size tires can increase the stress on your car's suspension system components, leading to a potential risk to vital parts, including struts and shocks. In addition, there is a link between premature wear on the suspension system and tire size.

There is a certain amount of rubber that goes around on that center plane, and putting the tire on a wider rim does not stretch the center section of the tire. Hence, if the cross section of the tire-rim gets bigger and the diameter of the tire stays the same, the extra material has to go to the width. And it does.

What size rim for a 225 tire? ›

Michelin states that the recommended wheel width for a 275/40/19 is 9"-11". Obviously, 9" is at the lower end of the spectrum but it will work fine.

Wheel or rim diameter is the distance measured in inches across the face of the wheel, from bead seat to bead seat. It's measured this way because that's where the tire and the wheel come together. In our example, the diameter is 16 inches.

Rim size and tire size go hand in hand—if you have 15-inch rims, you'll need 15-inch tires. If you already have tires on your vehicle, you can also find this number on the sidewall of the tire. It's usually safe to say that rim size will continue to work for your car.

Generally, it is recommended to stay within 3% of the original equipment tire size's diameter (or height).

If your vehicle is equipped with an even number of studs, measure from the center of one wheel stud to the center of the opposing wheel stud. When measuring a 5-lug vehicle, measure from the center of one stud to the outside of the farthest stud to calculate your measurement.

Find the centre bore on your vehicle's wheels. It's the circular opening in the middle of the wheel that fits over the hub on your vehicle's axle. Measure the diameter of the centre bore using a tape measure or calliper. This measurement will usually be in millimetres (mm).

The size of your wheel is printed onto the side of the tyres. You will see that it is made up of a series of numbers and letters. R16 = Tire and wheel diameter in inches. The 16 means that this tire should be matched to a 16-inch diameter wheel.

The first number in the tire size, 265, represents the width of the tire in millimeters. To convert this to inches, we divide 265 by 25.4 (since there are 25.4 millimeters in an inch). This gives us approximately 10.4 inches.