Great service in Santa Fe..... Hal Burns Truck and Equipment

June 21, 2012, 04:53:55 pm

I wrote the following on Monday, but waited till today to post. The generator worked without a problem for over an hour at 95+ temps. The dash air was too cold to run on "max" and kept us comfortable from Santa Fe to Las Cruces. When we pulled into the RV park it was 104. So all that was fixed seems great.

Now my post.....

We are in Santa Fe after spending a month in SW Colorado. At the end of the week we will start heading for hot and humid Texas for some service work in NAC. Hope to be there about June 30. Our dash air has not been working since we left Tucson so we took the coach to Hal Burns here in Santa Fe to get it fixed. Other FT owners (e.g., the Savournins and Barry and Cindy) have had service there and spoke highly of them. Let me add to the positive reviews! They don't take appointments, but when I called the guy I talked to, Paul, who appears to be the manager, said to bring it in at 8am and they would try to work us in.

After arriving at 8am, our mechanic, Bill, knocked on the door at about 10:30am and started working on our AC unit. He replaced a couple of leaking valves where the Freon machine hooks to the compressor and added about 3 1/2 lbs of Freon. By the time he was done, it was blowing 32 degrees! He also added dye to the Freon so future leaks will be easier to find with a black light.

He also addressed our generator problem (see previous post). The oil in the generator seemed very light weight (maybe the Tucson guy that changed it in March used 10-30?), so he replaced the oil and the filter. Also replaced the radiator cap and topped of the coolant. The idiot light that came on when it faulted on our way to Santa Fe could have been either low oil pressure (steady) or low coolant (blinking). I'm not sure what it was when the generator faulted. So far it is working fine.

This shop is not the nicest place I have seen and is located in a semi-residential area of south Santa Fe. It has been there for about 40 years. But it is very close to Santa Fe Skies RV Park which made it very convenient for us. The shop is very busy with all sorts of trucks parked in the surrounding lot that have been brought in for repair.... from Hotshot fire fighter trucks to a large Bud Light truck and everything in between. I think these guys are the only shop in town for large diesel engine repairs. In addition, they do repair work for the city, county and state. But in spite of the demand on their time, Bill treated us very well and got the job done quickly. This place impressed me. I will be back. In fact, this would be a good place for annual engine and drive train service. A lot closer for us than NAC.

I am struck by the fact that first appearances really seem to be very unreliable.... I should know this! In Tucson I went to Inland Kenworth for service. Very fancy office and everything was neat and clean. But they added too much oil to the engine (at least a quart over) and lubricated my brakes (see previous posts) in spite of the fact that I told them not to lube the chassis. Then there is Hal Burns.... a bit of a mess to say the least. The place looks a bit like a junk yard. But the service was first class and so were the people! Like I said, I should know this, but the point was made again!

Re: Great service in Santa Fe..... Hal Burns Truck and Equipment

Reply #1 – June 21, 2012, 05:14:42 pm

George,

Glad you've had a good experience with a repair facility. I have to agree with you that looks are deceiving when it comes to repair facilities. Some smaller mom & pop shops do not have the resources (or sometimes the will) to spend the time needed to keep a shop looking clean all the time. But some of these folks will spend some energy cleaning & tidying up only from time to time.

As long as the people working there are skilled and competent, I personally do not care what the place looks like. So I suppose that Hal Burns will continue to get more & more business thanks to your good review of this past experience.

Peter

Re: Great service in Santa Fe..... Hal Burns Truck and Equipment

Reply #2 – June 21, 2012, 08:06:45 pm

George or anyone heading to NAC, when we were there James Stallings was having his Prevost worked on by a fellow in Lufkin. I rode down to his shop with James and decided he knew what he was doing with Detroit 6V92's. The facility was pretty much a dump but I think he did a great job mechanically and the price was reasonable. He found a major leak in our exhaust manifold and actually repaired it rather than just replacing it. So far so good, his welding is still holding but I only have about 1500 miles on the repair. He also checked and adjusted valve lash and the injectors although he said they were already pretty good. His name is Bernd and can be reached by contacting James at Xtreme, I seem to have lost his number.

He also works on transmissions and air conditioning, both chassis and roof air.

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