usually when someone comes on here asking about tires they want to go wider

i have a set of brand new tires 225/60/16 that i can have for free if they will fit on the car if they cant fit then ill be buying new tires anyway

i was just asking ive got a 84 vette with the ugly dish type wheels on them and i dont hot rod it just street drive it


would the 225 fit on the rim ok or should i stick with 245's?

 

The following may sound a bit confusing, but it does make sense.

Your stock wheels are 255/50/16
Your new wheels are 225/60/16

In a second, you'll see why I need to include that info. here.

To calculate if the new wheels "should fit", without physically installing them on the rim and then on the car, you can do some math.

The first number (255 or 225) is the width of the wheel. To calculate the width of your tire in inches, take the first number (225 - new wheel) and divide it by 25.4. Don't ask me why 25.4. That's the number that's always used. So, 225 divided by 25.4 = 8.86. The width of the new wheel is 8.86 (rounding off) inches. The width of your stock wheel is 10.04 (rounding off) -- 255 divided by 25.4 = 10.04. The width of both tires (stock and new) have a difference of 1.18 inches (10.04 - 8.86) and in my book, that's pretty insignificant.


The second number (50 or 60) is called the Aspect Ratio or profile. I'll be using A.R. instead of writing Aspect Ratio. The A.R. is the relationship of a tire's height to width when mounted and inflated on a rim of the correct size. The higher the second number (50 or 60), the taller the sidewall and vice versa. The A.R. is a ratio of sidewall height to width. To calculate the A.R. of your new tire (225/60/16), take your calculated width in inches (8.86) and multiply that by the A.R. (there's actually a decimal point before the second number, so it's really .50 and .60 for the two tires). So, to calculate the width of your new tire, you do 8.86 X .60 = 5.32 inches (rounding off). To calculate the width of your stock wheel, you do 10.04 (255 divided by 25.4) X .5 = 5.02 inches. The profile of both tires (stock and new) have a minuscule difference of .3 inches (5.32 - 5.02) and in my book, that's also pretty insignificant.

They both have the same rim diameter - third number - (16).

From what I can see, you shouldn't have a problem with fitment, but, the width will be less and it will have a barely noticeable higher profile. It comes down to if you like the look. For free, I say go for it.

If anyone here believes that the new tires will cause fitment problems, please speak up, because I guarantee nothing. The above is simply my mathematical analysis of the two tires in a side by side comparison.

The following is not meant to be nasty, but to help you in the future. It would be very helpful if you would capitalize, use punctuation, etc. in your sentences. Very often, when a question is asked that has no sentence structure, it is ignored. We simply don't want to take the time to figure out what you're trying to say. You're new, so I wanted to help you out, but in the future, you really need to make the small effort to do what I mentioned; it can only help you. That could be why you have no replies. Again, I only mentioned this to help you.

 

In addition I might add that the total height of the newer wheel with the 225/60 16 setup will not be .3 inches higher but .6 inches. Height of the sidewall (one) is 60% off the width and since your wheel is round you will end up with two sidewalls. One up, one down, right.

The 225/60 16 will be: 8.86 times 60% times 2 = 10.63 + 16 = 26.63 inches total height.
The 255/50 16 will be: 10.04 times 50% times 2 = 10.04 + 16 = 26.04 inches total height.

Now yeehah, everybody rush out with your measuring stick and check out your wheel height.

JUST KIDDING.

I could be wrong too. But this is how I see it. Then the issue with wheel dimension. A 8.5 inch wheel might be to wide for a 225 tire. The 225 tires might look like balloons.
It´s just how you want it to look like.

 

with these guys.
By the way, good catch vette079 on the "2 sidewalls" of the tire.

Here is a simple formula that I've always used when calculating tire sizes.

((2 x Tire Size x Aspect Ratio) / 2540) + Rim Diameter

Using that formula:
Stock tire: ((2 x 255 x 50) / 2540) + 16 = 26.04 inches in diameter
New tire: ((2 x 225 x 60) / 2540) + 16 = 26.63 inches in diameter

Difference of 0.59 inches

Note: Very good explanation of tire sizes by 85 500 horse

 

Your 100% correct about the height of the new wheel. Good catch.

 

I tested 235/45 17 studded wintertires on my 9.5 inch wheels at a time but it didn´t look to good IMO. Maybe I´ll try and go with 245/45 17 or even 255/45 17.

But they are hard to find here in Sweden if you want to have them studded. Standard tire size (summer) is 275/40 17. Come to think of it, 225/60 17 might not look that bad after all on 8.5 inchers.