Let me begin my review by saying that Bob's Muffler did an excellent job installing a complete dual exhaust system on my older Class C RV a few years ago, after getting less than satisfactory work done at D&D Muffler locally in Lancaster, CA. That's why I decided to make the 90 minute drive to Bakersfield and have them fix the exhaust pipe-to-manifold leak (exhaust donut gasket) on my newer 33 foot long Class A RV. Left early in the morning, on a Saturday, and got there at 10:30 AM. They had cars/trucks on every lift in the shop when I got there. So I ask the lady in the office how long the wait will be. She said I should come back later, after lunch. when they're less busy. I asked her if 1:00 PM would be a good time to come back and she says yes. So I leave and have lunch in town to kill some time. Get back to Bob's Muffler at about 1:15 PM, and they again have cars/trucks on all their lifts. They close at 3:00 PM on Saturdays. Walk in and the office lady says that I'm next up, and the wait shouldn't be long at all. At around 1:30-1:40 PM, they have me drive my RV up onto their lift. One of their guys looks for where the exhaust leak is on the left side, and then tells me that, yes, it's leaking past the donut gasket at the pipe-to-manifold connection, just like I suspected, and also a slight leak from between the manifold and cylinder head. So I said "Okay. Go ahead and fix it". Here's where it all starts to go downhill. The guy starts to tell me that he doesn't want to start on the repairs right now because if he tries to take the rusted hex nuts off of the rusted exhaust studs, they might just break the studs off, and that would mean it would take longer to repair because he would then have order new studs from the local auto parts store because they don't have them in stock, and it's too late for them to start working on it, and that I would have to bring my RV back some other day. Right when he told me all that I wondered to myself "What? They don't have 3/8"-16 studs for a Chevy exhaust manifold in stock??? They're the most common exhaust stud for all Chevy small block/big block V8 engines! What kind of muffler/exhaust shop is this???" And so I told the guy, "Well if you break a stud off, you can just simply burn out the broken piece with a torch and thread in a new stud!" Heck, I've seen that done by skilled mechanics at many exhaust shops in the past 35+ years. And the leak between the exhaust manifold and cylinder head can be fixed by simply tightening up all the 3/8" diameter exhaust manifold bolts with a 9/16" hex wrench and deep socket! What??? Apparently this guy at Bob's Muffler must've been one of their newer employees, because he started making excuses to the boss about how he wouldn't have enough time to work on it if he broke a stud, they would have to order the studs from the auto parts store, blah, blah blah. Excuse after excuse. What??? If they let me use their tools and torch, I could've easily fixed it all myself within the last hour they were open, while it was up on the lift. And then to top it all off, when I went to back my RV off of their Bend-Pack lift, their high angled ramp was nice enough to snag onto my drain valve manifold for the waste tanks underneath the RV and broke apart the glued joints on the plastic ABS pipes. Great! Thanks Bob! Bring my RV to Bob's Muffler for exhaust repairs and end up leaving with more damage than when I got there. So my positive attitude about Bob's Muffler went completely out the window that day. I'm guessing that the only thing they're equipped for is basic simple repair work like removing & replacing worn out catalytic converters and mufflers, and to fab and install complete exhaust pipe/muffler systems. Anything other than that apparently seems to be too hard for them to do. I only recognized the lady in the office and one of the workers out in the shop from the last time I was there. Didn't see Bob anymore. It looks like Bob's Muffler is now under a different owner, and they've got a whole different crew of guys working there now. Not the same guys as before.
So my long trip to Bob's Muffler turned out to be a complete and total waste of a lot of gasoline in my RV, my time, and the whole day! These days, it seems like if you want anything done, and done right, then you gotta go and do it yourself. Less and less skilled and knowledgeable people out there to fix your car/truck/RV these days. So after I got the RV home, I drove my car down to the local auto parts store and bought 2 exhaust donut gaskets and a set of Fel-Pro exhaust manifold gaskets for the RV. Gonna have to crawl underneath the RV and fix it all myself.
What letter comes after "X"??? WHY??? WHY??? WHY??? read more