How To Tell What Size Rims You Have

At present playing: Watch this: Read your tires and know what you have

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You tin can read automotive tires like a book if you know the language, and doing and so will help y'all purchase the best ones and go the most miles out of them. Our video above takes you through the unabridged secret world hiding in patently sight on the side of your tire, simply hither are a few highlights.

Width, meridian and size

Possibly the nearly normally discussed piece of data well-nigh a tire is a number in the format "XXX/XXRXX," which describes a tire's size and shape in a somewhat arcane manner. Using 235/55R18 as an case, 235 is the tread width in millimeters. The higher that first number, the wider the tire. The 55 is the peak of the tire expressed equally a percentage of the width we just saw. The lower this number, the shorter and more than aggressively the tire sits on the wheel. The R ways the tire is of radial construction (they all are) and the 18 is the bore of bike the tire fits, expressed in inches. This string is a existent mishmash of numbers but information technology carries the essence of a tire's applicability.

Your tire's altogether

In smaller type, typically at the end of a line that begins with the letters DOT, you'll find a four-digit sequence similar 3219. This reveals your tire'south manufacturing date, expressed as the week of the twelvemonth followed by the last 2 digits of that year. In this example "3219" means the tire was made in the 32nd calendar week of 2019. This is of import information considering tires can run out of life long before they run out of tread: Heat, UV, ozone and the quality of the tire's materials can end a tire's safe usage life long before it fails the Lincoln penny tread test. The catchy part is knowing how old is too erstwhile.

Tire sidewall OGI — This tire was made in the 14th week of 2017. The numbers before 1417 are manufacturing codes you or your tire installer should register to brand certain you receive remember notices that apply to your rubber.
Emme Hall/Roadshow

The largest tire concatenation in the US, Discount Tire/America's Tire, has a policy that suggests you replace tires after six years, which is a unremarkably mentioned rule of thumb though many consumers see it as a ploy to sell them new tires. The visitor won't fifty-fifty service tires that are over 10 years old, other than to take them off your car, but that isn't as definitive as it sounds. "There is no such thing equally a 'freshness appointment' for tires," says Richard Sherman, tire and blow reconstruction expert at Robson Forensic. "I've seen tires fail in i year or last virtually xx years," he says, adding that you should look for sidewall slap-up or unusual tread appearance as signals that your tires could exist declining in ways that aren't revealed past unproblematic tread depth.

If there is anything like a universal truth almost tire age it would exist that you should replace any tire with a three-digit engagement code: The industry hasn't used those codes since 1999.

Under pressure

Nosotros've all heard the exhortations to cheque and maintain our tire force per unit area for the all-time fuel economy, treatment and safety. All of that is truthful, but when you grudgingly stoop down at the gas station with that nasty tire inflator, all you see on your tires is a "MAX Pressure" number. That is non the proper inflation pressure, merely the highest at which the tire won't disintegrate or come off the wheel. The pressure level y'all should inflate your tire to is located in i of a few places according to federal rules: On a door edge, door post or glove box door or within the trunk, or on the fuel-filler door and in the owner's manual. That doesn't narrow it downward much, but once you know the number it's piece of cake to remember. Just don't inflate to the MAX Pressure level on the side of the tire.