After getting my Falkens and seeing how wide they are it made me start wondering about how tires are marked for purchase.

I was under the impression that the tire size was a true messurement of the width of the tire in millimeters, measured from sidewall to sidewall. A millimeter is a millimeter no matter what country you are in or what company you work for - so how is it that the 205mm Falkens are way wider than my 205mm Kumhos?

Perplexed....

 

has anyone compaired the 205 vs the 215 falkens? I wonder if all there tires are the same width.





[Modified by jond, 8:27 AM 4/24/2002]

 

Maybe since tires have a curvature on the ends, the actual end points of measurement are up to interpretation. If tires had 90 degree angles (contact patch to sidewall) a clear endpoint is defined. But, with the curvature, I guess companies have flexibility in the measurement.

 

good question, I have been wondering the same thing myself

 

It's funny that you mention it...

Azenis 205/50/15's stack taller than Kumho 712 215/45/16's. Talk about getting your money's worth.

 

Good point. So whats the proper way to measure them?

 

No, it's supposed to be the width of the tread.

How they do that without 90 degree corners, I don't know.

Why one tire seems wider than another with the same nominal tread width, I don't know.

 

Can someone post pics of 205-50-15 S03s vs 205-50-15 Azenis? Surely some of you big bawlers have both sets lying around.

 

Remember treadwear is arbirtarty, too...

 

Sure, but there is no treadwear standarrd to measure against - so it is very arbitrary as you point out. But tire width is a different story, how more standard can you get than an actual metric measurement - the millimeter.

 

Not exactly. Treadwear is based on tests of the actual tire, as compared with a reference tire. So if a tire gets twice as many miles as the tire manufacturer's reference tire, it should have twice the treadwear rating.

The only reason that treadwear is arbitrary is that different companies use different reference tires, so you can't compare a treadwear rating for a tire from one manufacturer with one from another manufacturer.

For example, if a Yokohama A032R has a treadwear rating of 60 and a Yokohama A022 has a treadwear rating of 120, the A022 should last twice as long as the A032R. But you can't conclude anything about a Bridgestone RE010 with a treadwear rating of 120 in comparison with a Yokohama tire.

 

My stack of Azenis is a tiny tad taller than my stack of AO32Rs.

Both in 205/50/15