If I wanted to know where to find industry standard definitions about tires, e.g. treads, sizes, weights, names and definitions (like definition of a tire cover is xxxx; definition of a tire patch is xxxx, treads are yyyy, and steel belted radial means zzzz), where would I look? Thanks in advance.
Tire size is given by a number like P225/50R16.
P means passenger vehicle (T is temporary, C is commercial, LT is light truck, I don’t remember the rest).
225 is the tire width, in millimeters.
50 indicates the sidewall height as a percentage of the width (I don’t know why they do it this way instead of just giving it a height, but they do). In this case it would be 50 percent.
R is radius, so R16 means it fits on 16" rims.
Can’t help you with the rest, sorry.
That’s good so far. Is there a place where all this is written down? I know there’s something for what I’m looking for with regards to electricians and code, and such. I am curious if there is something associated with tires.
I found these Googling under automobile tires specifications:
http://www.offroaders.com/tech/AT-MT-Tires/tire-tech.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/tire.htm (go through all seven parts)
…and this Googling under automobile tires construction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire
I’m sure much more is available by Googling.
No, R is Radial construction. 16 (all by itself) is the diameter (not radius) of the wheel, and thus of the hole in the tire, in inches. So yes, it fits a 16" rim.
Pure racing tires (ie. non DOT-approved) usually have overall diameter in mm as the second number. For example, 245/620/17 (roughly equivalent to 245/40/17).
I guess they do it that way because it is easier to calculate how a specific tire size will affect the final drive ratio.