How To Read Tire Numbers

33x12 50r15 the first number is your overall diameter of the tire.

How to read tire numbers. P designates this tire as a passenger car tire an lt before the tire size would mean the tire is a light truck tire and a european metric tire would have no letter before the tire size. Tires manufactured before 2000 you need to check the last three digits of the dot code. These letters and numbers tell you the tire size type of tire and the safety standards. The letter p at the beginning of the tire size tells us the tire is a p metric tire referring to tires made to certain standards within the united states intended for passenger vehicles. The first letter on a tire indicates the tire s class.

How to read your tires. For instance when the last three digits read 022 you should understand that the tire was manufactured in the 2nd week of that year. There are two ways that tire manufacturers display tire size inches and metric. In this example the tire diameter or height is 33 inches tall. How to read tire size in inches is very straight forward.

The second number represents the width of the tire. Check the first two digits to know the week. The number 60 indicates the tire s aspect ratio. To read a tire look for the width and aspect ratio which is a series of numbers and letters that looks something like 225 50r17 the first 3 numbers are the width of your tire tread and the second 2 numbers are the thread width percentage. In this example the 45 indicates that the sidewall distance from the wheel rim to the outside of the tread is 45 of the section width.

As an example if a tire size has two sets of numbers 6 12 5 00 15 11 2 24 then the first number 5 00 15 is the approximate width in inches and the second number 5 00 15 is the rim diameter in inches. We will teach you how to read your tires below. The last number 14 indicates wheel diameter. It may seem like a bunch of random numbers and letters are on your tire sidewall but they all actually mean something. If a tire size has no letters at the beginning this indicates a euro metric tire.

The first number in this series refers to the tire s section width or distance from sidewall edge to sidewall edge in millimeters when measured up and over the tire s tread. Reading your tire size metric tire class p. 245 section widthtread mm.