Buying up a few of our manuals

[ras101]

So, if you have followed a few of my posts on quality of the online manuals you will know at least I am not a fan! Some are so degraded due to hap hazard copying techniques, others because the originals have , in my opinion been abused too. I come from a time and culture (1940 England) when even using a pen/highlighter) was considered a sin any information. Seeing some of the manuals for our GT's totally destroyed with highlights etc, basically makes me want to weep! The quality of our reference documents that are left after so much abuse is heartbreaking to me... The copies that are created from those destroyed documents, the care taken to align, etc, etc.. well you draw your own conclusions. For me, I have tried looking on-line, I have tried visiting forum archives, etc. to no avail. So what? I have decided to buy but only original copies, and again only those that seem to have been treated at least semi decently too. Not buying the world here guys but buying originals of my GT fleet. I then copy the original and file protectively so no further damage occurs. I then 'clean up' the original to get as close as is possible to the original. I can only do this to documents from my "fleet" though and I am not in it for all documents. That's your job - protect and improve and share your improve documents too...

[Eugen]

I got an original 220 operator manual, if I can find it I'll scan it and post. Not sure it's a very good shape though.

[Timj]

I have most of the original manuals for both my tractors and most of the attachments. The 448 manuals have been marked up by the PO but the 4118 are Clean. I'll have to see if I can figure out and get them scanned. When I get some time.
I've been meaning to ask my uncle what he has for his newer 4023. I know stuff for the late models is seriously lacking.

[Harry]

For myself I don’t need any manuals. I go to a site that has them and make copies of the pages I need. Then when referencing the material with dirty hands it doesn’t matter if they get a few smudges on them. I received a few manuals from PO’s when I purchased their GT’s and they all have dirty pages. I figured if they purchased the GT it’s theirs and the manuals. So they have the right to get them dirty. I remember when I started to work on cars and trucks I always had a Motors manual to get information from. They were always dirty, but I could still read the information on the pages I needed. Clean manuals for me are for library’s. If I received one from a PO I would figure they never opened it. Harry

[DavidBarkey]

@Harry well said . I am of the same mind set.

[ras101]

Guys when I wrote this post initially I( basically knew there were going to be two schools of thought here at least). As we have all done, we use what is available too, most will just put-up with what is there, and BTW I have had to do that too. In the last few weeks though I have downloaded two manuals where less than half the copied manual could be read without making a lot of assumptions and there was nothing better I found. This post was a plea therefore to make available the best copy we have for the future and not what each person will 'put up" with. I guess it's like saying - yeah I can use my old engine oil in my GT as it only runs for half an hour at a time rather than buying new oil.

Just got another couple of manuals - OP Manuals 9-9960 & 9-51563 that I will be copying and cleaning soon before I upload. Yeah I have a high end laser copier that scans quickly but that aside the cleaning takes less than 15 minutes of my time too.

Is the final copied manual perfect ... well most nearly.

[ras101]

I got an original 220 operator manual, if I can find it I'll scan it and post. Not sure it's a very good shape though.

If you can find it and scan and can send it to me in a PM I will try to improve the scan before posting. You would be amazed how a scan can be improved. All I ask is that you check current online documents first to ensure that you have the only copy, or that your copy is better than whats already out there. Ray