What the numbers describing car tyres mean

I want to sell the winter tyres for my now deceased VW camper van. Went to the Quoka website to put up an advert, and under "Reifen & Felgen" they have the following sub categories for winter tyres.

· Winter 135 - 155
· Winter 165 - 185
· Winter 195 - 295

What does it mean? Speed range? Size?

Very unlmanly of me to have zero interest in cars and need to ask such a basic question!

Those sizes are referring to the width. Normally on a car tyre it'll be noted like this: 195/50 R17. The 195 refers to the width, the 50 is the aspect ratio (sidewall height) and the R17 is the radius in inches.
Edit: that is just an example, the numbers vary greatly.

That does look like max speed ranges for winter tires. Summer tires don't have that limitation. Mine are in the middle category and limited to 185kmh.

Haha awesome, a third opinion? (I am a girl who does not own a car, I do not need to know such things.)

However, I can point you to the Wikipedia article about Winterreifen: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterreifen

And seeing as speed limits are denoted with letters (see the article) my guess goes to width.

Timmeh's post is correct.

If you still have your Fahrzeugschein for the van, it will also be noted there (assuming you had the correct tyres on the van! which I'm sure you're obliged to do)

Oh yeah, Timmeh and I win! Hah, eurovol!

That would be fine except for one thing, your car requires a single width and not a range of widths. Hell, just take the risk and pick one and see where it leads.

EDIT: If it is width, then I guess your screwed if you have a 125/85 R13 tire to sell.

I am sure that the ads are just separated by ranges, not the tires. They have three different sub-categories depending on the width.

And speed would not need a range either. Or the minimum speed with winter tires would be 135km/hr.

Wow such good avice, and no invitation to use the fucking search

I shall check the copy of my Fahrzeugschein, and failing that measure the dman things. Thanks all

Here are all the categories:

· Allwetter 135 - 155
· Allwetter 165 - 185
· Allwetter 195 - 295
· Sommer 135 - 155
· Sommer 165 - 185
· Sommer 195 - 295
· Winter 135 - 155
· Winter 165 - 185
· Winter 195 - 295
· Sonstige Reifen
· Alufelgen
· Sonstige Felgen, Radkappen
· Schneeketten

I got just put them in Sonstige Reifen No?

Since my AxeMobile could barely do 130 going downhill, I'm sure they're the lowest speed grade. But good condition.

Ask Euro 100, or be greedy and go for Euro 150?

Be greedy, you can still lower the price later. Unless you need to get rid of them.

the first number is the section width the second number is the aspect ratio.

so for example a P185/60R14 would mean a passenger tyre 185 mm wide with an aspect ratio, ie side-wall height of 60mm. R means Radial. 14 is the size of the wheel. then you have a number /letter combo which indicates the load bearing and max speed.

edit. too slow by far...

edit for Eurovol: speed and max loads are given in a two or three number and one letter combo, like 100T. The letter gives the max speed (S has a vmax of 180, Z is over 300) and the numbers give the load. 100 would be 800kg.

What shit means.


Uh, most trips take longer than 10 minutes?

Dude, I know what the shit means. I was guessing based on the limited info provided because it seems to me that you wouldn't list a tire on width ranges as that is just stupid. Cars require exact specifications.

Surely it's a ratio, not a measurement, so if the tyre is 185 mm wide, 60 = 60 % of 185 = 111 mm high.

The numbers are the tire width in millimetres surely?

Well they could be milli radians of the arc the rim makes from the center or somerthing even more obscure, but 135 mms sounds like a real skinny tyre?

Yes 135 mm is a very skinny tyre, but I think that's what a Citroen 2CV has!
Wheel is right in that the 60 ( or 65,or 55 or 50 etc) is a percentage of the width and bizarrely the 14 (or 15, or 16, etc) is the diameter of the wheel in inches. So to calculate the diameter of a wheel and tyre, should you wish to do so, you have to take the diameter of the wheel, say 14 inches, convert it to millimetes, so 14 x 25,4, which is 355,6 mm. Then you have to add on the aspect ratio of the width x 2, because a tyre has a top and a bottom, so lets say 60% of 185mm, which is 111mm, times 2 which is 222mm and then added to the wheel size, which if you haven't already fallen asleep, is 355,6mm, which gives you a total diameter of 577,6mm.
You will, I'm certain never need to know any of this, but it does explain why when you get wider tyres on your new car the aspect ratio goes down. This ensures that the wheel and tire combination will fit in the wheel arch, as the total diameter has to be more or less the same or else the tyres will rub on the body work. You may now wake up!

This is a total guess so feel free to shut me down. The range thats described could be the kilopascal range that the tyre needs to be inflated at. different conditions require different tyre pressures.

Tyre dimensions are definitley singular not in ranges, so 235/45/R17 is a size of a non specific tyre. meaning it is 235mm accross the tread face, 45mm tyre wall height and suit a 17 inc wheel.

Again, just a guess, can't be arsed researching it myself. but it's out there

I think several people are still mis-reading the original post, where the ranges are mentioned.

The newspaper/site where MAM wants to advertise asks him to specify what range his tyres fit into. This doe not mean he shouldn't state in his actual ad for them what specific size they really are. It is for the ste, so that potential buyers don't have to llook through pages and pages for the tyres they are looking for.

Parallel example: on the same site, cars may be shown in broad categories such as their size, or quite often the make - BMW, VW etc. Once you fin the broad category you are looking for, you read the text of the ad - and there the specific car is listed - 316d, 323i etc

No, as has already been pointed out, the 45 is the aspect ratio, i.e. 45% of the tyre width.

Timmeh answered the question straight away, the rest of us are just waffling on to fill the thread out!

I was in the cellar last night where said tyres are abondonedstored, and harvested the following numbers:

185R140 65psi 8PR 102/100p M+S

This would seem to sugges they're 185/?? R14. Have to go back with a tape measure to caculate ??

Or just guess at say 50 so 185/50 R14. I also observed that they have about 6mm thread which is pretty good?

185 is the width in millimetres.

R refers to the speed rating, not important on a Renault kangoo, very important on a Porsche Turbo! EDIT: wrong, sorry it means they are radials.

14 is the diameter of the wheel in inches.

65 is the aspect ratio, which means the height of the tyre is 65% of the width of the tyre, so that would be 120,25 mm.
Because a tyre has a top and a bottom the total diameter of the tyre is: 120,25 x 2 = 240,5 + the diameter of the wheel, which is 14 x 25,4 = 355,6 mm, which gives a grand toatal of 596,1mm

M+S means they are winter tyres.

Not too sure what the other numbers and letters mean, although I think some of them refer to the date of manufacture.

Here's a link to an ADAC page that gives you all the info on tyres. I hope it works, you may have to be a member.

I think the 65 psi means they can be inflated to a pressure of 65 pounds per square inch. Nothing to do with aspect ratio. BTW they are the tyres off my old VW camper van, I'm notz trying to sell the Kangoo bits & bobs yet.

So 185/?? R14 is a pretty standard tyre I beleive. what would be a standard aspect ratio? I'd actually say 30 or 40. Pity I didn't just measure the damn things.

If they're off you're camper they probably have an aspect ratio somewhere between 60-70.
I may be in the market for some winter tyres for my VW camper

30 or 40 aspect ratio is an extremely low profile tyre, definitely not something you would fit to a camper van. 185/65 R14 is probably the most basic tyre size available.
65 pounds per square inch = 4.48159224 bar. Thats more than 4 times atmospheric pressure, trust me you don't want to be blowing up your car tyres to this pressure.
You've obviously misread this. I suggest you try again. I'll bet you a beer your tyres are 185/65 R14.

I bet you a beer you're right. I shall advertise them as 185/65 R14, and see what happens.

Is 4 bar really such a high pressure? Remember the thing weighs a tonne unladen, so the tyre pressure could well be higher than for a normal vehicle.

Well it's more than double what my car needs and that weighs 1,5 tonnes! Actually I'd be surprised if your camper van only weighed a tonne, the unladen weight of a new Mini is 1135 kg (1.1 tonne)

And the old Mini was ~700kg... I reckon a tonne sounds reasonable for an old VW camper.

But anyway yeah, no way would you have 65psi in a road tyre. ~40 is the highest I have heard of with a high load. It is concievable that 65psi is the MAX specified inflation pressure it could handle though.

For a car/van tyre, yes. From memory (I've not looked at one for a while), Transit tyres take about the same pressure as car tyres, so I guess a VW camper will be in the same range as well.

My road bike, on the other hand, wants 8-8.5 bar in the tyres, and my commuting bike about 7.

Increasing vehicle weight doesn't necessarily mean increasing tyre pressure!

The main factor affecting tyre pressure is the tyre width. The narrower the tyre, the higher pressure you will need (for a given vehicle weight).

Increase weight, or decrease the area touching the ground and you will need an increased pressure to compensate. It's just simple physics that bit.