Tire question: What is the 17" equivelant of 235/85/16?

[Martinjmpr]

Is there such an animal?

I went to 235/85/16 Yokohama Geolanders on my Taco and found it to be a perfect tire size (about 31.7" diameter.)

Now that I'm shopping for a 4runner I'm a bit miffed to find that every one I've looked at (2006 - up) seems to have 17" wheels. From what I've read over on the Toyota 120 forum, the only models that need the 17" wheels (due to the larger brakes) are the Sport and Limited models, so I suppose if I wanted to I could try to find some 16" wheels to fit, but my guess is that by the time you factor in the cost of a set of take-off wheels + tires, I'd be well out of my budget.

So my question for the group is: What is the rough equivalent of the 235/85/16 style of tire in a 17" wheel? That is to say, a tall, narrow tire with a good load rating? I've already looked at the Discount Tire web site and there doesn't appear to be a 235/85/17 tire.

Is there a guide somewhere that shows the "normal" tire sizes that are available?

I remember my Taco originally came with 265/70/16s but when I started shopping for tires I discovered that this is not as common a tire size as 265/75/16, for example. It would be good to know which sizes are the more common and which are less common.

 

[Redline]

235/80r17

 

[Martyn]

A 265/70/17 has a diameter of 31.8 inches

Metric tires read 265 mm is the width, 70 is the height to width ratio, and 17" the rim diameter.

 

[durango_60]

Look for some JK Rubicon take off's, they are BFG MT 255/75 17. As a matter of fact I have a few in my garage that you could take off my hands pretty reasonably.

 

[paulj]

In this size range, a 5% change in profile (80 to 85) represents about an inch change in diameter.

Most online tire retailers let you enter a tire size, and they will show all the models that come in that size. I usually use Tirerack for that, though they don't carry the smaller off-road brands. Also when you look at the 'spec' tables for a particular tire model, you can see the actual size - diameter, section width, tread depth, sometimes tread width.

You can also calculate an approximate tire diameter from the nominal tire size. In the metric sizes the formula is:

235/85/16 = 235mm * 85/100 / 25.4 mm/inch * 2 + 16" = 31.7"

That is, the height of the sidewall is 85% of the width (235mm). 2 side walls plus the rim diameter gives the total diameter.

Tirerack lists 18 models in 235/80/17, 43 models in 235/85/16

 

[Just Me]

Got to www.tirerack.com and lookup the brand and type of tire you like. Then click SPECS to see all the tire sizes.

Here is the the specs on BFG ATs 235/85/16 are 31.7” Hight 9.4” wide. The closes 17” tire is 245/75/17 31.6 H, 9.8 W Next would be the wider 265/70/17 31.8 H , 10.7 W.

 

[BKCowGod]

For future reference, I regularly use the Miata.net tire size calculator to compare tires. Comes in very handy.