Driving my 2 94 cars up north..How will they react?

Hey there, I am driving to Portland, OR in january, and I am concerned about the tires/engines for my little 94’s. Both are in good running order with low miles… I have a 3cyl geo metro that I want to drive up there, but i’m concerned with how it is going to react once I pack it down with weight and drive it 2k miles through the cold…My rims are 12", which is a fairly uncommon size. I was thinking about upgrading to 13" rims and getting a fatter tire, but Idk how much that would actually help with mileage/cold weather driving/weight distribution for when driving under load…
My other 94 is a 650l diesel engine, and it def has a rougher time starting in the cold. It has a block heater that i’ve never used, and I hope I never have to!

Any advice about what I should look out for, or predictions about how the Geo will behave driving on 12" rims in the cold under load?
tia

Do any preventative maintenance specified, especially if you’ve been deferring it: COOLING SYSTEM (make sure you have anti-freeze); timing belts, tune ups, batteries all work best when new. BRAKES: you’ll be seeing actual mountains, with cars loaded to capacity (also, if you are not familiar with driving in mountains or snow, some time spent researching appropriate behaviour can be helpful). EDIT: proper, current (not old) tires, and make sure they are at least rated for M+S (mud and snow–I don’t think any non M+S tires were an option for the Metro anyway).

For the rest of this: TL;DNR: sticking to what the OE specified is usually better, especially for anyone not “into” swapping stuff and working on it. This includes OIL, which sometimes is specified differently for cars operating in sub-freezing temperatures, mostly to accommodate cold-start, when the oil is thicker.

I’m curious as can be what the “other” is. I’m not able to think of any 1994 650cc diesel cars sold in the USA, and I sincerely doubt you mean 650 litres, which is how I read “650l”…

As long as it is loaded within the manufacturer’s specifications (both the car manufacturer AND the tire manufacturer) it will behave largely as expected.
12" is fairly uncommon, and frankly, always has been.
If you are going to bother with an upgrade, I would go to a 14 or 15" wheel, as tire availability expand greatly at these sizes, 15" being better. There is virtually zero 13" tire availability these days (especially “in the middle of nowhere”). Having said that, though, the size required for this vehicle to do a “plus 3” are also NOT going to be available, most likely.
So I think I’d recommend NOT futzing with the OE; they largely knew what they were doing, and trying to move to something “better” may cause more trouble than it’s worth.
If you want to explore anyway, here are 2 sites to help with information about these options.
Wheel-size.com will show a list of comparable wheel sizes to the OE, and the tire sizes that approximate the same rolling diameter as the OE.
Tirerack.com sells wheel and tire packages, including “plus” packages, and walking through those available will assist in getting some idea what is proper size and “available”. I also like to take the tire sizes suggested here or on wheel-sizes.com and plug them into a tire size search. This gives you a pretty good idea of what “the average” is, as this is where tirerack shines: selling buckets of tires to the average consumer. For example, your OE tire size was 145-12. There is exactly 1 tire available from them, and it’s not cheap. This tells me this is a niche, but not completely dead market. Plug in a 155/70R13, though, and you get ZERO. This tells me this is a dead market (also, I have a car which uses these, and they aren’t easy to find, and aren’t cheap). 155/60R14 also zero. However, tirerack.com suggests the 165/65R14, and lists 3 tires in that size, 1 being a snow tire.
You can see how this snowballs quickly.

As for how much an upgrade will help with weight, cold weather driving, or mileage: negligible on all counts. Your car will only carry what the manufacturer designed it for; changing tires and/or wheels won’t change that, and ANY of these tires likely far exceed what is “necessary” from a purely mathematical standpoint.

I see no reason to try to avoid using a block heater. They are wonderful, especially for diesels.
If you’re having trouble with “cold” starts in Texas, you should probably look into why. It won’t get better in the real “cold”. Investing in a “battery tender” and block heater for it are suggestions I would make, but garage space is the absolute best cold weather performance enhancer for any car, diesels included.

Also, the whole snow chains thing… I have no advise whatsoever. When I lived in the frigid north, I never needed them (and they were illegal in the places I drove then), but they were in the trunk just the same.
You can see others have chimed in with lots of info on MY queries on them

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Portland’s climate is pretty mild - it’s not like you’re moving to Minneapolis. It will be a moderately colder in the winter than DFW and the summers will be very mild.

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I assume the old “sell our crap, pay a mover for the rest, fly there, and re-buy as necessary” discussions have already happened, too, because that’s REALLY the way to go (if you can/want to afford it). For that matter you can ship the cars if you really want THEM but don’t want to try to drive them there.
Otherwise ya gotta get over the divide. In January. Loaded. And that’s not as big a deal as it once was, but you don’t want to be unprepared, either. (Pack chocolate and water; hopefully you’ll use it later than sooner)
But good point that once there, you’re not in a Minnesota climate…

I am originally from Utah/SLC. I have made that drive from midwest several times in a 4cyl car, once or twice with significant weight (e.g. 3 extra adult male bodies and luggage up to the brim). Speaking from my experience only, the car had a fairly difficult time because of the climb (often steep) up into the Rockys.

I would be wary of overloading a smaller, older car for a drive like this unless you have good reason to believe it can handle it, or have other means of mitigating, e.g. avoiding steeper areas (although that would be a less direct drive, I think).

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Possibly rent a U-haul (or whatever) capable of towing small car and carrying a reasonably sized load inside?

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Brakes. Bleed them & check them. If they have not been bleed then you go through the mountains, you may find that you no longer have any. I highly recommend that you ensure you do not overload past the GVW. Get into the mountains & you may get brake fade. You can go to a truck stop to weight your vehicle to have the knowns. Replace your radiator cap as well for the same reason. Higher altitude will make it easier to boil, if your cap isn’t sealed tight or spring is weak.

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Agree on all the PM.

When you get near where it is going to really cold, maybe in an abundance of over caution you may want to make sure your diesel doesn’t gel if a nasty vicious cold snap hits by putting in some fuel anti-gelling additive.

Re:tires. Tread pattern will make more difference than rim size. I lived in the NE and the tread makes a big difference. But once your past snow they are noisey and don’t get great mileage. Watch the weather, 12, 24, 36 hours out. May make a big difference in where you stop for the night. An extra few hours to get past the high altitudes and steeper grades may be worth it before a perspective storm hits. Most Interstates are plowed pretty good.

Icing on bridges is were things can get tricky especially Black Ice. If chance of black ice, I don’t drive at night. Have a bag of kitty litter for any ice patches where you need it when wheels spin. Have a sleeping bag or blankets readily available in case you need to stop.

Again, good luck. Be safe. Hope your adventure is a fun one!

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