Hey guys so I'm fairly knew to the driving world. And I keep getting confused when people talk about tires. Can someone give me a break down of what all the numbers mean when you're talking about tires?

 

Example: 275/60/17. 275 is the width of the tire in millimeters, 60 is the aspect ratio (ratio of width to height) is the effective "height" of the sidewall, 17 is the rim diameter in inches.

 

Basically the first three numbers is the tread width in millimeters, the second two numbers is that aspect ratio or the height of the sidewall compared to the tread width in a percent and the third is the rim width.

So a 285/75/17 means the tread is 285mm or 11.2 inches wide. The sidewall height is 75% of the tread width so 213.75mm or 8.4 inches and the 17 is still how wide the rim is.. It's not too bad once you get used to it. Theres a lot of sites that will tell you all kinds of tire dimensions and stuff, tirerack.com has good information on each tire.

There are also tires set in standard sizes like 35x12.5-17. That's 35 inch diameter, 12.5 inch tread width on a 17 inch rim.

 

It's pretty weird that that's the second post I've been less than a minute behind you with the same information. Maybe I should shorten my posts so I'm first next time.

 

^ Just keep giving good information. Doesn't make a difference to me who's first. As Joe Dirt would say, "Just keep on keeping on."

 

Oh you don't score points for being the first to answer correctly? Damn! How do you win this then? It's still a pretty odd coincidence though!

 

you two guys made that answer your little Dutch girlfriend. Tag Team!!!