How to Explain the Numbers on the Sidewall of Your Tyre to a Five-Year-Old

What are those numbers on your tyre sidewall and how can you talk about them in such a way that any five year old child could understand? Here’s a good start ... “They’re round, rubbery and black with a big hole in the middle and have stuff printed on them.” Sound good? Well, not exactly.

Language We Can All Understand

Even though what you said is true, most kids are a lot smarter than many adults give them credit for. So in order to be able to explain this stuff to the kids, it’s best that we be familiar with it first. Here we go ... in kiddie speak!

Each tyre has a few different pieces of important information stamped on its sidewall. This tells us how big the tyre is so that when we need to buy a new one, we know what size to look for.

If we look a little further, we can also learn how the tyre was made. Next to that there are other numbers and letters that tell us how much gear we can pack into the car and once it’s full, how fast we can safely drive down the road.

How does that sound? Do you think a five year old could understand that? Fantastic!

What We Need to Know

Now it’s time to make sure that the adults get the picture about the numbers on your tyre sidewall. The data moulded into the sidewall of each tyre gives us a number of essential pieces of technical information.

Let’s work through the above example ...

195 refers to the tyre’s Section Width ... this measurement is in millimetres and is measured from sidewall to sidewall.

55 refers to the Aspect Ratio of the tyre ... this is expressed as a percentage, and lets us know the ratio of the tyre’s height to its width. In our example, the number 55 indicates that the height of the tyre is 55% of its width.

R refers to the Construction Method of the tyre ... there are two different methods and R means that the tyres have layers that run in a radial pattern across the tyre.

16 refers to the width of the Wheel Rim Diameter ... this measurement is in inches and informs us that this tyre would fit a wheel with a 16” diameter.

87 refers to the Load Capacity ... this gets a bit technical here but before the maximum load of 545kg per tyre (total for the vehicle of 2,180kg) can be carried, all the tyres must be fitted and balanced correctly, in good condition and inflated to the correct pressure.

V refers to the Speed Rating ... this is the manufacturer’s recommended fastest speed when the vehicle is fully loaded. A V rating indicates a maximum speed of 240kph.