Manual on cd?? Any good??

[amitysanimal]

Anyone have any ideas as to if this is worth it or not?

eBay Motors: Kubota B5100 B6100 B7100 Repair Manual B 5100 6100 (item 270329904354 end time Feb-12-09 08:32:24 PST)

Thanks,
Cleve

 

[amitysanimal]

C'mon guys, any thoughts?????????

 

[Soundguy]

I personally like bound manuals... I like to have the book laying ont he bench so i can leaf al the way thru it. I don't like having a computer in the shop.. I know some people like manuals on CD. Technically you can print out the pages you need and use them... but not as good as having the entire manual to leaf thru.. unless you print the entire thing.

Guess you could go to the expense of printing it, then putting it into sheet protectors.. then a 3-ring binder...

soundguy

 

[Jimbrown]

I am not familiar with that particular one. But I have one for mY BX and for my Mule that I got off of another site for about the same price. Both appear to e copies of the factory manual. Legal or not I don't know. I like them because you can print off the pages you need and then don't care if they get greasy or wot not becasue you can always print more.

 

[bruceatlam]

I don't know about tractor manuals on CD, but based upon my experiences with vehicle maunuals on CD, I would be very leery of any repair manual on CD. I've found them virtually worthless. At best they contain "spec information" that is readily available for free on the internet. At worst, they are copies of copies and won't even boot up on my PC. So, I would pass at any price --- you get what you pay for --------

 

[woodlandfarms]

In the classic car world most people don't like the manuals on DVD's. Problem is that you it is not done by the factory so the quality can be off, and that what makes a computer great (searchability primarily) does not exist or exists poorly. Finally, you then have to print things up, or worse, get your computer greasy.

 

[Wombat125]

For my part, I am a big fan of the service manuals on CD. The bound manual for my 5303 was about $250 whereas the CD manual was $135. They have the exact same content; about 1300 pages.

I find that no matter how careful I am in the shop, my bound manuals invariably get goobered up with grease and dirty fingerprints. With the CD manual, I just print out the few relevant pages I need and don't worry about it.

One fella here on the site took his CD to Kinkos or something and had it printed and bound. He had both versions for what I'm guessing was still less money than the bound version alone.

I got my CD directly from the dealer. I might be a little leary of the eBay thing. Good luck!!

 

[Wombat125]

...that what makes a computer great (searchability primarily) does not exist or exists poorly. Finally, you then have to print things up, or worse, get your computer greasy.

I don't mean to sound like I'm evangelizing the CD, but my 5303 manual was just a PDF file. The text searching works very well.

 

[Baranx4]

I think it comes down to personal preference. With the cd you can always print off the entire manual but if you don't do you want to be having your lap top in the garage with you as your working on it for more complex issues.

 

[slaveToHorses]

I have a huge number of equipment manuals in both bound and digital formats. Both have their advantage. It is nice to scan the bound manual in the morning, on the throne, before tackling the days maintenance project. That's a bit awkward with a computer

Occasionally I have gotten poor quality pdfs but if you do a little research you can find good quality ones with bookmarks and hyperlinks. Plus you can always do text searches.

I really like being able to search.

I also really like being able to print out the relevant pages and mark em, grease em, tape em to the machine or whatever. I like being able to reorganize them, because sometimes the material is spread out through the manual.

When you have hundreds of manuals, having them on the computer is a very nice feature!

 

[woodlandfarms]

I shouldn't have been so quick to negate it. My buddy reminded me that my beef with CD's is 7 years old. In the mopar world some guy came out with shop manuals on CD. Charged a TON of money, and then the scans were mediocre, not searchable, just a bad deal. Lots of us got burned on it.

 

[flusher]

Anyone have any ideas as to if this is worth it or not?

eBay Motors: Kubota B5100 B6100 B7100 Repair Manual B 5100 6100 (item 270329904354 end time Feb-12-09 08:32:24 PST)

Thanks,
Cleve

Paris, France? I'd be careful here.

I read thruogh the eBay info. Can't tell if the CD contains Kubota's own shop manuals or if it's something else from a second source (like I&T manuals). I'd pass on this one.

 

[MessickFarmEqu]

its a rip off of the pdf files that are floating around the internet.

 

[E_Sanborn]

Anyone have any ideas as to if this is worth it or not?

eBay Motors: Kubota B5100 B6100 B7100 Repair Manual B 5100 6100 (item 270329904354 end time Feb-12-09 08:32:24 PST)

Thanks,
Cleve

Manuals on CD are great - if they're the OEM PDF files, on CD. If you like hard copy- you print out what you need. Trashed pages in the shop? not a problem.

IF they're just scanned manuals put into PDF files, well, better than nothing, but generally those are less useful. Why?

- No functional index, no hyperlinking, no word or phrase search, skewed pages, illegable sections, illustrations with the clarity of a cup of coffee, missing pages... and more surprises

 

[Matt_Jr]

I like stuff like that on cd. I use Mitchell on Demand at work and love it. I HATE service manuals. If it's on cd it's easy to print out what you need and go with it. If you mess it up, oh well, print it out again. Great for wiring diagrams too. You can highlight the wires on your printout without worrying about ruining what's on the other side of the page. If you want to search for something just use the find feature.. easy for looking up specs, removal and installation procedures, and so on. It's great. As for the one on your link...dunno.

 

[amitysanimal]

Well I figured for $15.00 shipped I'd give it a try. It seems like it might be ok because they have good feedback, if they were bad someone would have posted a negative. I'll let you know how it is when it arrives.

 

[CDsdad]

I got a cd manual for my MF 1533 from the dealer. I thought it was good. I did convert it all from excel to pdf though.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I got a cd manual for my MF 1533 from the dealer. I thought it was good. I did convert it all from excel to pdf though.

I got a manual on CD for my old Iseki. It was like what most said... not searchable, grainy pictures, low quality; but I still liked it better than a hard copy. Of course they guy who sold me the manual also sent me a hard copy, but I never use the hard copy.

I love the option of printing a page, marking it up with notes and highlights, getting it all greasy, and then throwing it away when I'm done.

Another thing I liked about it is that I can load it on a SD card or something and then I have it at work if I've got time in between projects to read up on whatever modification or repair I'm doing at the time.

Also, I can always find the manual on the computer. Can't say that about the hard copies. Especially with a wife who likes to decorate and rearrange things without telling me where she put all the books that used to be on that shelf. Even when she does tell me "Oh, in the storage room somewhere" it doesn't help much.

Bottom line for me... A CD manual has everything that a hard copy has but you have additional options too.

 

[JC-jetro]

I like manual on CD for the fact you can easily make backup copies, you never loose the information and I'd like to print the pages I need and annotate and mark them before doing the work. I would not have to worry if pages get oil soaked or damaged.

JC,

 

[SteveJ]

I bought the $10 Kubota B 5100/6100/7100 manual from Ebay and received the disk this weekend. It is 61 pages long, and not bad for the price. The PDF qualty is in the acceptable range. Not as good as a printed manual, but I've see a lot worse. For $15 (with shipping), I got what you paid for. I should have saved my money and bought the 400 page Kubota service manual that I really want. I need to replace the geared shaft that the 3 point lift arms attach to. This manual actually show a parts breakdown of this area of the tractor and gives a little bit of information on what to do. If I haven't spent the $100 for the real service manual before I get around trying to replace the part this spring, I will get my money's woth out of it just by seeing the exploded parts diagram. It doesn't tell a lot, but makes me feel better having something to refer to.

I have avoided doing the repair becasue I need to take the backhoe off to use the 3 pt hitch and want to finish some excavations projects before I do that. I am assuming that this part is stripped. With the backhoe attached, there is nothing to see but the geared shaft itself. When I operate the lift control, the shaft does not rotate and it makes a sound like stripped gears.

The person I bought the tractor from bought the lift arms for me as part of the deal. He had to go the the Kubota dealer and the kit he bought included the two lift arms and the geared shaft they attach too. Since the shaft was included, I am assuming that it may be subject stripping when overloaded. At least that I what I am hoping, since I have the part and it appears fairly easy to replace. If anyone has replaced this part on a Kubota B6100, I would appreciate any insight you can provide. Thanks.