Will someone please explain to me the meaning of a tire size that reads 33x12.50? I've got some new wheels recently, and I've only ever bought regular road tires. I understand how those measurements work - like 285/70 17 - tire width/sidewall height and wheel diameter. The other measurement doesn't mean anything to me.

Now that I'm shopping for tires again I've considered putting some of the bigger tires that I see on 4X4's but I don't understand the tire sizes. In other words, when I look at a measurement like 33X12.50 that doesn't tell me anything. LOL

I know some are going to laugh at this, but I just never really paid any attention to it - I never really considered buying larger tires.

I should also add that I'm asking here because I'd also like to get other bonus information. I'd be doing this because I think it would make the truck look better, not for functionality. Would it be worth it? Is it feasible? Would I be considered a poser for doing it for that reason? LOL What's going to happen to my gas mileage? What other changes will I have to make? I'd still like to be able to go down the highway and not have my tires sound like a dumptruck.

 

33 is how tall and the 12.50 is the wide of the tire
Like mine on one of my trucks is 33X15X18

 

here's a couple of tire size calculators. you can google it for more.
some will compare multiple sizes at once.

http://www.1010tires.com/tiresizecalculator.asp

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

 

Overall, I realize that this was a really stupid question for me to ask. I just noticed while researching tires that once you get into the LT tires (larger tires) the sizing nomenclature changed. I guess I wasn't clear on exactly why that was.

I decided to just go with my original tire size of 285/70 17. Once I started reading about all of the other things I would need to do to get the look that I wanted, I'm just not willing to spend the money right now - too many other things going on. Thanks all for the info.

 

The 285x75x16 is a mix of metric and imperial. When you get into boggers, swampers, mudders and such, they give you all info in inches.

Never did understand why they do that, unless it was to make it easier to notate the differences in the smaller tires.