Wheel vs Tire width

So maybe I'm not that bright, but I see a lot of people on here running 20x9 wheels with 35x12.5 tires etc. Basically, how do you run a tire that's wider than your wheel? It just doesn't make sense to me thanks in advance!

 

rubber is quite the resilient material,

but basically, in theory that tire would fit a 12.5 inch wide rim, would never put it on one that size, cause you get into stretch and sidewall deformation, can be dangerous etc..

but every tire manufacturer has specifications on what rim sizes their tires will fit

this nitto terra grappler, states it will fit an 8.5 to 11.0 inch wide rim

the tire literally is "squished" on a smaller width rim, and it is "stretched" on a wider rim,

hope that helps

 

like this is dangerous stretching



the middle one of this would be some pretty extreme squish, the person mounting the tire would have a hard time putting on the tire

the right side would be stretch, like the tire above

 

well alright that's easy enough! Thanks