I’ve had my 2015 Nissan Xterra Pro-4X for 5 years now, and the air conditioner has never worked. Three years ago, I had Nissan take a look and they found a hole in the condenser (probably from a rock?) and replaced it. When I picked it up, the air conditioning worked for a couple minutes, and then not again. The light turns on indicating it is on, but the compressor doesn’t engage. I assumed there was a massive leak, and when there isn’t enough pressure detected in the system, the compressor won’t engage. With no mechanics wanting to touch air conditioning up here in Dawson, I haven’t been able to make any headway.

But this year, I’m driving across the country (with a special guest I’ll introduce at a later date) and back, and I’m guessing we may want air conditioning? With a limited time frame left to address this, I booked an appointment at Canadian Tire in Whitehorse for their air conditioning service folk to find the leak.

I took Friday off work, got up at 4 o’clock in the morning, and headed south. It is nice on the highway that early in the morning. It is already (or still) bright out and there is no one else on the road. I saw a lynx that was just sitting in the middle of the road, probably hunting, a dozen bunnies, and later a cinnamon-coloured black bear.

To make the trip even more useful, I decided to test drive my new gear I’ve purchased for my road trip:

I had both on a Canadian Tire wishlist and picked them each up at great discounts earlier this spring! (Hot tip: If you have a Canadian Tire account, you can click the heart icon on any item, and you’ll get an email when it is about to go on sale!)

I set these two up in place of my back seat that I removed, and powered the cooler with DC power from the Jackery, and powered the Jackery with 12V from one of the 4 cigarette lighter plugs in my truck.

As I drove the highway, the fridge kicked in a few times. It is really quiet, and draws only ~35W while running (and 0W in between). Only it was always registering 0W in from the truck. I tried all the truck’s 12V ports and none of them charged it.

So I just let it run. It was a two day trip, so probably about 36 hours, and when I got home, the battery on the Jackery was at 63%. That means, if it isn’t crazy hot, I should be able to get a few days of fridge power!

Now back to the air conditioning. I got to Canadian Tire for my 1pm appointment, and he said, uhh, our only air conditioning certified guy isn’t in today.

Uhm, what? I drove 7 hours, all the way down here from Dawson for this appointment.

Then, this is when my years of customer service, and troubleshooting experience kicked in. Do I throw an angry fit? That’ll just make him tune out. So I asked what could we do without the certified air conditioning guy to troubleshoot the issue and progress this along?

He said they could do a pressure test and check for leaks, but they wouldn’t be able to refill/recharge the system due to environmental dangers and the certification needed.

Let’s go! So I sat there in their freezing cold service waiting room for the next 4 hours.

And surprise! Their diagnostic efforts showed that the air conditioning system is fully charged, with the expected pressure, and there is no leak. Beyond that, as to what could be the issue, 🤷. But, despite a significant number showing on the invoice, they decided not to charge me a penny. YES! Good thing I didn’t throw that fit!

I spent the night at the Airport Chalet, my favourite old motel where I sleep so well, and did a bit of shopping for a few more things on our list, and then headed back home.

It was so smokey in Whitehorse, from the fires in northern BC. It was blocking out the views of the mountains. Everything was tinted orange.

If I learned anything from this quick 14+ hour round trip, I never want to travel without a fridge again! It is so amazing to have a box of cold waters, drinks, and whatever else I gathered along the way, in it! Like fresh berries, mandarins, and sandwich ingredients! I stopped at a rest stop to make a sandwich on the freshest, buttery soft, sourdough bread! With gouda, ham, turkey, lettuce, and a fresh tomato!

This is the life!

It was a slow drive back, with campers, trailers, expedition bike riders, and heavy equipment with wide loads getting hauled up to the gold mines. Plus the construction zones and pilot cars!

After getting home, I spent most of the next couple of days on ChatGPT and every Xterra and Jackery forum and subreddit to try to find clues as to why my truck won’t charge the Jackery. I even had Jeff humouring me with his multimeter testing cords and ports.

With some of the possible causes of my air conditioning also being electrical, could the issues be related?

Jeff talked to our local mechanic today and he’s going to keep my truck for July when Jeff and I are gone for a few weeks and troubleshoot (and hopefully fix) both issues. Whew. I can continue to watch Vice Grip Garage every week, but I’m still no mechanic, and I don’t know how to fix these issues. I can’t even find the A/C compressor. Everything is so tightly packed under the hood of an Xterra!

I did buy an emergency backup strategy though. The Jackery 100W solar panel went on sale while I was in Whitehorse, also at Canadian Tire (I swear this isn’t an ad for Canadian Tire!). Just one 100W panel won’t charge that big Jackery that quickly, but it will, slowly, especially in direct sunshine, so… we’ll see? 🤞

Here’s my beautiful girl:

This fridge test drive taught me another thing – I thought I wanted the cooler right behind the front seats, but it is too awkward to grab anything from the front seats, and it is difficult to fill and use in the little back seat. I have tie-down points available in the back, so that’s where I’m planning to place it instead, and I’ll tie it down to make it secure.