Value of Equipment Manuals

[Tractor Seabee]

I have noted Numerous posts relating to making diagnoses or the end repairs could have been alleviated some frustrations if the victim of the problem had ready access to Operating, Workshop (Repair), and Parts Manuals. I just responded to a post where I entered some of the dialog I will repeat here for further comment.

I would not be w/o my WSM and Parts manuals. They have saved me many times their cost. I made the manuals a condition of buying my new BX as I knew I would be doing my own work a lot; they threw them in the deal at no cost. The Parts manual is invaluable when ordering parts by phone or email. Just the proper nomenclature saves a lot of frustration and then getting the wrong part.

Kubota manuals and other Brands should be available through Dealers parts department, probably have to order them though. Mine is paper printed though; but, I never take the paper copy to the shop or outside. Copy the pertinent pages. Messicks (a TBN supporter) may have copies both new and older models, they are very responsive. The represent several other manufacturers also. In time Kubota may follow the company they just bought, Land Pride, they had/have all their manuals on line. I have even used manuals to build my own items using some of their unique parts and fabricating the others.

I get a kick out of folks asking us who invested in our manuals for copies of pages. Once in awhile I will bite when I feel sorry for a guy in a real time bind; but I am also sorry, if you can afford a $20K machine you can surely afford $200 for the manuals. Don't get me wrong; I still try to be helpful where I can.

When looking for manuals on anything, I always try the manufacturer of the product first. Amazing how many have then available for free download in PDF these days. Been there and done that in all of the above as I have bought a lot of used stuff that I need the manual for.

Ebay is mentioned often as manual source, especially digitized versions not available from dealers or manufacturers. A lot of the parts manuals on Ebay are poor copies of bad copies and then digitized. Some are virtually illegible. Also some of the internet manual advertisers are real scammers/phishers and/or have the same problem with quality. So be careful there. Hard to tell till you get it. Unfortunately on some products that are no longer made or parts supported Ebay and the internet are you only resource; or, try us on TBN, we may just have one to copy for you and post.

What say you?

Ron

 

[Diggin It]

I made the manuals a condition of buying my new BX as I knew I would be doing my own work a lot; they threw them in the deal at no cost. The Parts manual is invaluable when ordering parts by phone or email. Just the proper nomenclature saves a lot of frustration and then getting the wrong part.

What say you?

Same here. Got mine on a thumb drive though so I can copy/paste to something else to take outside.

Always bought the books for my cars too.

There are a few sites out there that host manuals for many products in PDF format, but I'm not sure how current they are or if the manufacturers ever challenge them.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I am not sure of the actual value.

Today, you can download a lot for free.

I am rebuilding a 1978 4.108 Perkins Engine, and found a downloadable service manual, along with a service manual for its injection pump.

But today, there is also YouTube. A lot of times I can find out what it is like to do a repair BEFORE I even start. A lot of the information a service manual would give you, a person doing a YouTube video gives you as well. Really, both give you the same thing: an insight of what you are getting into, before you get into it.

It is nice to call up parts people with real part numbers, but honestly you can look them up online too, or have them do so.

 

[Gem99ultra]

I also make sure I get the factory WSM's and Parts Catalogs, especially on every new car, truck, tractor or motorcycle I buy. They've become most valuable, and paid for themselves many times over.

On the other hand, I've not enjoyed the same success on the cd's I've bought online. Thinking that their search capability might be great, I've only been disappointed with that. Of course, they're better than nothing.

I strongly recommend buying the WSM and Parts Catalog when purchasing new and at the time of purchase. Otherwise, they probably won't be available later.

 

[shaeff]

I bought the factory service manuals for the following:

Massey Ferguson 35 Utility (service and parts)
Massey Ferguson 99 Loader (for the above machine)
John Deere 25A

And one of our members here, Gordoninvt sent me the manual for my JLG LJ500 which was produced for so little time that finding a manual is nearly impossible.

PS- if anyone has a JLG LJ500 Little John and needs a manual, PM me, I'll email it to you!

 

[ovrszd]

I've got a lot of Electronic Manuals. I've sent them to several members here on TBN. I don't mind sharing them.

I use online Parts Diagrams too. They'll almost always show you the order of things for disassembly/reassembly.

 

[shovelmike]

I get the manual for machines whenever possible, I definitely like digital versions too, big benefit in printing the page you need rather than getting greasy fingerprints all over your book. My memory is not very good, so I frequently have to take a second and third look as I work.
The above being said, some manuals are not very useful, the one for my Mahindra was fairly inexpensive but seems to have been written by some guy in their office who knew a little English. It's kind of hard to understand some of their descriptions.

 

[BukitCase]

I agree with the vast majority of previous comments -

I'd add one more thing when looking for DVD manuals online - when you're shopping, unless you see the word "SEARCHABLE", RUN AWAY

Probably 99% of the time, the cheapest batch of DVD manuals are just PICTURES of each page of a paper manual - these can NOT be searched, because search engines look for ASCII code (the string of 1's and 0's a computer reads when looking for letters)

The better DVD's have been produced by taking pictures also; but AFTER pictures are taken, those pics are run thru desktop publishing software that uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to turn the pics of WORDS into the ASCII code mentioned above - the pages are then reassembled into PDF's where the words are NOT just pictures of words.

That's why those "searchable" DVD's will actually FIND every instance of the word you're looking for, instead of the irritating "not found" message you get when you're actually LOOKING at the word on a page of the document.

IME, if the cheapest batch of manuals for a machine are running $10-15, the searchables ones run about TWICE that; also in my experience, the extra $10-15 is worth a LOT MORE the first time you try to find something... Steve

 

[Texasmark]

Priceless.....Some sort of technical reference, be it paper or electronic manual, or tutorial.

 

[caver]

I found what looked like a new/old stock paper manual for my Case backhoe. I think I paid over 120$ for it plus shipping. It's handy, not perfect but handy and felt i got my moneys worth.