A simple explanation of Tire sizes, what all the numbers mean and where to find them
Tyres & Tires Explained
I’ve been playing Car Mechanic Simulator for a while and have a very limited amount of knowledge about tires and what the numbers on the sidewalls actually mean. So I was a bit shocked when someone asked me how do I know which tires to match to which rims and what will fit the actual vehicle in the game.
Firstly I’ll start by saying the choice of tire and rim combination is entirely up to you! I mean that’s the way the game was designed. You choose the style and repaint them if you want. Make them bigger or smaller it’s all entirely up to your personal preference. I’m guessing that you already know how to buy tires and rims, how to pain rims, and how to put them together and balance them ect. So I’ll not cover that.
BUT
If like me you like to find and restore the junkers and rust buckets it might help if you can find the right tire size. To do this is easy, go to the car in question and click the job sheet (Car info screen)
Make sure you are on the Car Information tab and if you look down the list it will tell you the size of the tires placed on the car by the factory as well as the style of rim it used by default.
As you can see in the info I’ve used as an example the car has two sets of tires. 245/50R21 and 275/50R21. All this means is the car has slightly larger back tires than it has on the front.
Let me explain the sizes
The first Number which is 275 is the width of the tire, that’s from edge to edge it’s actually measured in millimetres but anyway it’s the bit of the tire that actually has tread on it and touches the road shown in the image with a red arrow. The second number is 50, this is the width of the tire wall from the hole in the middle to the edge. Basically this is the size or depth of the side of the tire. The bigger this is the more side profile the tire has oh and I’ve shown that in yellow. Finally the R21 is the radius of the tire so its overall size shown as the blue circle.
With all this in in mind I know my wider tires (the 275/50R21) is the rear tire and the slimmer 245/50R21 is my fronts. Since my tires have a Radial or R size of 21 that means whichever rims I choose I know need to be R21. I’m not sure what the ET:0 size thing is about but then I’ve never had to adjust it.
Anyway, I know its just one of those small things but I hope someone else finds this useful.
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You aren’t too far off, the first number is the contact patch/tread width. The second is the aspect ratio, which describes the sidewall height as a percentage of the width. The last number is the size rim the tire is intended to be mounted on,not the tire’s radius, so: 275/25/R19 would be 275mm wide x 68mm side wall height which fits a 19 inch rim (the rim size would be in cm in metric using regions). Traction and tread wear which I won’t go into, it would take a fair while. The intended rim width is sometimes designated but less and less commonly these days.