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PO Box 10467
Te Rapa, Hamilton 3241
Freephone 0800 NEW TYRE
Freephone 0800 639 8973
Reading a tyre sidewall

Tyre Width
Profile
Construction
Wheel Diameter
Load Index
Speed Rating
The side of your tyre contains all the information you need to know about your tyre. Regardless of the manufacturer, all tyres display this information in a standard format.
Tyre Width
The width of the tyre measured in millimetres from sidewall to sidewall. In the example pictured, this is 205 millimetres.
Profile
This is the ratio of the height of the tyres sidewall to the width. On our example, ’55’ means that the height is 55% of the tyres width.
Construction
The ‘R’ stands for Radial. The majority of tyres are radials.
Wheel Diameter
The diameter of this wheel is 16 inches.
Load Index
This indicates the maximum load the tyre can support when properly inflated.
Speed Rating
The maximum service speed for a tyre. ‘V’ means that the tyre has a maximum service speed of 240 km/h. This is not a recommendation to exceed the speed limit!