Load index and speed ratings explained

The two characters after the size on a car tyre sidewall are the ones a rushed quote likes to skip. 91V. The 91 is a load index. The V is a speed symbol. Together they tell you whether the tyre was built for the mass and the pace of the vehicle, or merely for the hole in the rim.

A load index is a code that maps to a kilogram rating for a single tyre. 91 is 615 kilograms. 94 is 670. 95 is 690. Those gaps look small until you put people in a dual-cab and a fridge in the tray. Four tyres share the car, but they do not share it equally. The front of a hybrid or a van takes more. The rear of a loaded wagon takes more. The index is a per-tyre number. The vehicle placard already did the arithmetic. Your job is not to undercut it.

Why “same size, cheaper” can still be wrong

A special in 205/55R16 with an 89 load index will mount on a wheel that previously wore a 91. The fitter can do it in twenty minutes. The carcass is then the limiting part on a day you have four adults and wet boots and a run to the Sunshine Coast. That is not a theoretical court case. It is a hot, overloaded sidewall on the Bruce.

Speed symbols feel absurd in a city with cameras. Q is 160 km/h. H is 210. V is 240. Y is 300. Nobody needs Y to collect a child from school in Ashgrove. The symbol is still a construction grade. A Q-rated cheap import in a size that was specified V may be a softer, less expensive carcass. Sometimes that is fine. Sometimes it is how a tyre squirms on a long descent with a trailer.

Going up a speed symbol is usually acceptable. Going down should be a conscious, documented decision, not a surprise on the invoice. The same is true of load index. Extra Load or XL marks exist because some small SUVs need the reinforcement and some do not.

Vans, 4WDs and the letter C

A commercial van that asks for a C-type tyre is not being precious. The ply rating and the inflation pressures are different. A passenger touring tyre in a van size is a common, bad substitution. If you run a trades ute, read the placard twice and then read 4WD tyres for the SEQ hinterland if the weekend is not on bitumen.

Towing is a load-index problem dressed up as a hitch problem. The tyres do not care that the car “feels fine”. They care about the mass and the heat. Queensland highway towing in January is a temperature test. Tyres for the Bruce Highway belongs on the same shopping list.

How to keep the numbers honest in the bay

Write the placard values on the quote sheet. If the substituted tyre is a different index or symbol, ask the fitter to write the reason. If they cannot, you are not buying a recommendation. You are buying stock they need to move. That can still be a good tyre. It is a better tyre when the numbers are spoken out loud.

For the rest of the sidewall language, start with how to read an Australian tyre sidewall. For the money conversation, keep comparing quotes next to this page. The load index is the part of the quote that does not photograph well on Instagram and still decides whether the car is legal and sensible on a Saturday.

A longer look at the same job

The short version of Load index and speed ratings explained is the part you will remember in a fitting bay. The longer version is how that advice survives a Brisbane year: heat in January, a storm in February, a pothole week in March, a highway run at Easter, and a fitter who is busy on a Friday. This desk exists so the longer version still has somewhere to live.

Start with the car you have, not the car in the brochure. Read the door placard. Photograph both sidewalls. Write the pressures down. If you tow, if you run a roof box, if the car is a hybrid with a heavy nose, say those things out loud before anyone quotes a special. A special that ignores load is not a special. It is leftover stock.

How this sits with the rest of the archive

Nothing on Brisbane Tyres is meant to be a lone pamphlet. The car tyres hub still opens the same door the 2007 site opened. Motorcycle tyres still warn you to match front and rear. Tyre suppliers still tell you to test knowledge. Cheap tyres still tell you not to panic-pay, and not to confuse a bargain with a carcass. Care and safety is the weekly habit. Queensland roads is the climate. History is why the brands on a quote have grandparents.

If you are reading this article because a quote confused you, take questions to ask before you buy and how to compare tyre quotes into the bay. If you are reading it because a tyre already failed, take punctures and when to replace. If you are reading it because the sky has gone black, take wet-weather and aquaplaning.

Local details that do not fit a national brochure

Coarse chip-seal on suburban arterials roars a pattern that was quiet on a European press loop. Concrete on the Gateway drones a budget block. Painted crossings after a first rain are ice. A west-facing brick wall in Woolloongabba is an oven. A flooded dip on a hinterland road is not a place to test remaining groove. These are not colourful asides. They are the test conditions.

A fitter who has only worked in a climate-controlled warehouse will still mount a tyre correctly. A fitter who has seen a January week in this city will also ask about the spare, the alignment and the storm. Prefer the second person. Pay them.

What we will not tell you

We will not crown a single “best tyre in Brisbane”. We will not pretend a house brand is secretly a flagship. We will not tell you to ignore the placard because a forum likes a plus-size look. We will not tell you a string plug is a career. We will not tell you a ten-year-old tyre is fine because it has tread. Those sentences sell well. They fail on the road.

We will tell you to measure, to write dates down, to buy the load index you need, and to replace a wet-season tyre before the legal minimum makes the decision. That is a dull kind of editorial courage. It is also the only kind that belongs on a site that started as information on all the different tyres in the market.

A closing habit

Once a month, on a morning the car has sat, check pressures, look at inner shoulders, look for nails, look at the week code if you still do not know it. Once a season, before the first proper storm, measure tread. Once a year, get an alignment printout if the car has hit anything it felt. Those three loops will save more money than a coupon.

If something on this page is wrong for your vehicle, write to the contact desk and name the article. We correct dates and we correct advice. The old site was chatty. We kept the chat and added the duty of care.

A worked example from a ordinary Saturday

Imagine a 2016 medium SUV in Coopers Plains, door placard 225/65R17 102H, two school seats, a dog, a weekend bag. The fronts are feathered inside. The rears have 4 millimetres. A chain has a $99 special in 225/65R17 98H. A local independent has a mid-range 102H for $40 more a corner and will align the car the same morning. The cheap special is not cheaper. It is a lower load index on a car that already lives full, and it will inherit a bent alignment. The independent is the grown-up quote.

Now change one fact: the car is a third car that does 2,000 kilometres a year to a boat ramp in the dry. The cheap special, if the date is fresh and the fitter will still write an invoice, can be the right rung. The article you are reading is how to tell those two Saturdays apart. The facts change. The method does not.

If you want a second human to look at a quote, that is what the write for us and contact pages are for — not to sell you a tyre, to tell you whether the sentence on the invoice is complete. Completeness is the product this publication actually sells.