215/55 R16 - hens teeth?

[Guitars4cancer]

Hi, I busted a wheel on a recent road trip and needed to replace a tire. I was in a major metro area, yet nobody had a tire in 215/55R16 in stock, or could get me one in less than 3 days. Ended up switching to a set of 4 tires in 215/60R16, a size that everyone had in stock with many brands and models of tires to choose from. Anyone else run into this?

[Beta Don]

I'd guess it all depends on where you got stranded  

 

Tire Rack shows 58 different tires in 215/55R16  

 

If that's 'Hen's Teeth', that chicken sure has a mouthful!

 

I hit a chunk of asphalt which fell out of the back of a dump truck while crossing a bridge and blew a front tire on my Mitsubishi EV.  Limped into the first tire shop I found and asked if they could get me a 145/65R15  -  Now, you talk about 'hen's teeth' and there you have them  -  There are only 2 companies who import that rare size into the USA

 

The shop manager made a couple phone calls and just 3 hours later, I had a new pair of tires and was rolling again  -  This was in Biloxi MS, a city of only about 50,000

 

Don 

[mrtn]

It’s pretty common I guess. Just checked my regular tire supplier, they have 8 different summer tires in stock and it’s off season: https://rehvid.com/tires?size=215_55_16&seasons=summer

 

 

[williaty]

Yeah I just went through something similar. I looked at the really staggeringly poor options available in the stock Connect size (they're basically all all-seasons, which are universally crap) and gave up. I decided to switch to 205/55R16 which, since the Subaru Impreza has been using that size for close to 2 decades, there's a huge array of high quality tires available and they're widely stocked.

[Guitars4cancer]

Biloxi... that brings me back. I'm originally from Pensacola but after rebuilding my house 4 times in a decade we became hurricane refugees. Biloxi has more people in it than the county I live in, the county above, below and beside us all combined. Our town is around 700 people with a 45 minute drive to the county seat of about 10k people to buy groceries or the like. Our county has 1 elevator! The next county over doesn't even have an incorporated town, or a single red light. What I was calling a metro area is an isolated city of about 90k people. My only guess is this is a spot shortage, or little cars are much more common in Mississippi. 

 

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

On ‎1‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 4:59 PM, Guitars4cancer said:

Hi, I busted a wheel on a recent road trip and needed to replace a tire. I was in a major metro area, yet nobody had a tire in 215/55R16 in stock, or could get me one in less than 3 days. Ended up switching to a set of 4 tires in 215/60R16, a size that everyone had in stock with many brands and models of tires to choose from. Anyone else run into this?

 

I have a feeling almost anywhere you go 16s are a less common size and then almost nobody will have much with the 55 aspect ratio (in stock). Carrying a full size spare on a road trip is very wise.

Edited January 8, 2018 by OLDSCHOOLFOOL

[Guitars4cancer]

1 minute ago, OLDSCHOOLFOOL said:

 

I have a feeling almost anywhere you go 16s are a less common size and then almost nobody will have much with the 55 aspect ratio. Carrying a full size spare on a road trip is very wise.

 

Yeah, I hear you... I'm a belt AND suspenders kinda guy, but this was the first ever trip with this vehicle as I was driving it home from the dealer 1400 miles away. I'd tried to look at the spare but it was a foot of snow and 7 degrees when I took delivery. I did manage to see that there was indeed a tire there, but I didn't see that it was a zipper failure on the other side.

[G B L]

The 50 and 55 aspect ratio seem to be very popular on Lots of cars.  The 225/50/18 on the Malibu  that's in the fleet  is much harder to get tires at a reasonable price.  

Edited January 8, 2018 by G B L