Good day, dear readers. Today I want to answer immediately a lot of questions related to wheel sizes. Many of my readers do not understand what they mean and why they are needed at all! Today I will try to explain in a simple and understandable language what the dimensions of rubber on cars mean ...
The dimensions of the rubber wheel contain a lot of useful information, you just need to be able to read it. Without this information, you will not be able to choose the right tires for your car, they simply will not fit in size. Although now on the bodies of many brands there are special plates with recommendations, you just read them and go to the store to buy the same ones. However, there are not always such plates and you need to determine the dimensions of the tires yourself! A small clarification, I will only talk about overall dimensions, there have already been many articles about other characteristics, links will definitely be below.
I will talk about them using the example of my winter wheels, KAMA EURO 519, it should be noted that they are in no way inferior to their foreign counterparts. Read informative.
To begin with, the overall dimensions
I have a wheel size R16 205/55 , these are the so-called overall dimensions. Rubber is considered low profile (more).
The notorious letter R
Many mistakenly think (to be honest, I thought so too) that the first English letter R means the abbreviation "RADIUS"! But it's not! The letter R means radial tire, read the article -. This is such a method of assembling rubber and metal cord during production. Of course, you can also meet the letter D in front (diagonal), but such a designation is now really rare. In fact, this letter has nothing to do with size. Let's go further...
Disc diameter
The second number (in this case we have 16) indicates the diameter of the hole in the rubber, or which disc you can put this rubber on. We have 16, which means it's 16 inches! Remember that this size is always given in inches (1 inch = 25.4 mm). if we knock out our size, it turns out - 16 X 25.4 mm = 406.4 mm. The disc cannot be larger or smaller than the diameter of the wheel, you simply cannot put it on. That is, if the rubber is 16 (406.4 mm), then the disk should be 16 (406.4 mm).
Width
A large number almost always characterizes the width. In this case, this figure is 205. It is measured in millimeters, that is, the width of my wheel is 205 mm. The wider the rubber, the wider the track, respectively, the patency and adhesion increases.
Cord height
This is the smaller number that is applied through the fraction. In my case, this is 55, measured as a percentage of the width (of the larger number). What does it mean? To find the height (in my case) you need to calculate 55% of 205 mm. Thus it turns out:
205 X 0.55 (55%) = 112.75 mm
This is the height of the cord of our rubber, also an important indicator, see the figure.
Total wheel height
Let's calculate the total height of my wheel. What happens.
Rubber cord 112.75 X 2 (since the height is on both sides, top and bottom) = 225.5 mm
Under the disk 16 inches = 406.4
Total - 406.4 + 225.5 = 631.9
Thus, my wheel is a little more than half a meter high, namely 0.631 meters
Let's look at the most common tires that are used by most cars, there are three of them - these are R13, R14 and R15
Tire sizesR13
The most common of all isR13175/70 such are installed on many models of the domestic VAZ (although now it is moving away).
What happens:
R13 - radius 13 inches (multiply by 25.4) = 330.2 mm
Width 175
Height - 70% of 175 = 122.5
Total - (122.5 X 2) + 330.2 \u003d 574.2 mm
Tire sizesR14
One of the most common isR14175/65, are also installed on domestic VAZ models, more recent years of production, such models as Priora, Kalina, Grant, as well as on some inexpensive (folk) foreign cars - for example, Renault Logan, Kia RIO, Hyundai Solaris, etc.
What happens:
R14 - 14 inch radius (multiply by 25.4) = 355.6 mm
Width - 175
Height - 65% of 175 = 113.75
Overall dimensions - (113.75 X 2) + 355.6 mm = 583.1 mm
Tire sizesR15
The most common example is -R15 195/65, installed on many foreign cars (folk) class, but in high trim levels.
