265/60R18 — five factory fitments and no flotation neighbour
A common factory size on a wheel diameter where the imperial notation simply does not go small.
Metric notation · Crossover and SUV
- Overall diameter
- 30.52 in
- 775 mm
- Section width
- 10.43 in
- 265 mm
- Sidewall height
- 6.26 in
- 159 mm
- Aspect ratio
- 60%
- sidewall as a share of width
- Wheel diameter
- 18 in
- the hole in the middle
- Circumference
- 95.9 in
- 2435 mm
- Revolutions per mile
- 660.8
- geometric, not measured
- Revolutions per km
- 410.6
- geometric, not measured
- Typical load index
- 98–116
- 1653–2756 lb per tire
Crossovers are heavier than the cars they share size families with, so the same nominal size is produced at a higher index for SUV fitment than for passenger fitment. Two tires wearing the same size code can carry materially different loads.
The load-index range shown is the band this CLASS of size is typically produced in — not a list of what is in stock for this exact size today. Load index and speed symbol are printed on the sidewall of the specific tire you are holding, and the required minimum is on the placard of the specific vehicle you are fitting. Read both.
Nearest real sizes in imperial notation, same wheel
- 33x12.50R1833.00 in tall+2.48 in
- 35x12.50R1835.00 in tall+4.48 in
- 37x12.50R1837.00 in tall+6.48 in
Compare any two sizes, including ones this site has no page for, in the comparison tool.
Five vehicles here leave the factory on 265/60R18: the third-generation Toyota Tacoma, the North American Ford Ranger, the second-generation Chevrolet Colorado, the Nissan Frontier D41 and the Jeep Grand Cherokee WK2. Four of the five are mid-size pickups.
Nothing imperial nearby
Flotation sizes on an 18-inch wheel begin at 33x12.50R18 and go up from there. There is no 31 and no 32 in that notation on this wheel, so from here the shortest imperial option available is 33.00 in — a jump of 2.48 in and 8.13%, with 2.07 in of extra section width attached.
At that step an indicated 70 mph becomes an actual 75.7 mph, and a hundred indicated miles becomes 108.1.
That is a structural feature of the 18-inch wheel rather than a fact about this tire. Fifteen and sixteen-inch wheels have flotation sizes from 30 in upward; the 18 got them only at the point where the aftermarket started building large tires for late-model trucks.
The metric neighbours instead
| Size | Diameter | Difference | Width vs 265/60R18 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 245/60R18 | 29.57 in | −0.94 in | −0.79 in |
| 255/60R18 | 30.05 in | −0.47 in | −0.39 in |
| 255/65R18 | 31.05 in | +0.53 in | −0.39 in |
| 285/60R18 | 31.46 in | +0.94 in | +0.79 in |
| 265/65R18 | 31.56 in | +1.04 in | unchanged |
The one listing that goes the other way
The sixth-generation Ford Explorer names this size among its common upgrades, and it is shorter than all three of that vehicle's factory tires — 255/65R18 at 31.05 in, 255/55R20 at 31.04 in and 275/45R21 at 30.74 in. It is also wider than two of them, at 10.43 in against 10.04 in.
An upgrade that reduces rolling diameter is unusual, and it is a reminder that "bigger tire" and "taller tire" are separate decisions that the size code reports in separate numbers. The section width and tread width reference explains what the first of the three numbers actually measures.
It reads that way because the same code is doing two jobs. Four mid-size pickups and a full-size SUV leave the factory on 265/60R18 — for them it is the standard fitment, near the top of what their arches were designed around. For a three-row crossover already delivered on 31-inch tires it is a step down in height and a step up in width, which is a legitimate thing to want and the opposite of what the word "upgrade" usually implies.
Related
- 265/60R18 vs 275/70R17
- 265/60R18 vs 285/70R17
- 33x12.50R1833.00 in tall
- 35x12.50R1835.00 in tall
- 37x12.50R1837.00 in tall
Class: Crossover and SUV. Every figure above is computed from the size code, not stored — see how these numbers are calculated.