Wow, where do I start?
First, I have many manuals that I have legally downloaded.
For instance, when I had a Hinomoto C174, I was able to go to the Simplicity website and download the maintenance, operators, and parts manuals for the Allis Chalmers 5015/ Simplicity 9518. They were essentially the same tractor as my Hinomoto. They were FREE, with the blessing of Simplicity / AGCO. See the Simple Tractors website for more info.
I have the latest manuals for my Husqvarna chainsaw -- right off their website, and it is more up-to-date, and more complete than the manual that came with the chainsaw. Same with my Echo brushwhacker. I could go on and on.
I work for a company that builds very sophisticated electronic test equipment. The various pieces cost about the same as new tractors. The original purchaser, usually a really big company or a government agency, gets one set with the equipment when they buy one of our products. But, our equipment is used by field technicians around the world. If they could even get access to the manuals, who in their right mind would carry the manuals when they go out to repair a big radar or communications system on a mountain top? But, now-a-days they all carry computers with access to the Internet.
Many of our manuals are on-line for easy downloading. We don't want to be in the printing business.
It is far better for customer relations to post our manuals on-line than to have users calling us for manuals we really don't want to take orders for, that we don't want to print, and that were paid for early on in the production process.
Yes, there are lots of free manuals out there -- and it is legal to download them. Just don't print them out and try to sell them on ebay. That gets people nasty angry.
Good luck hunting,
Knute
(Is anybody else having trouble posting after they log in? It keeps wanting me to log in, and then dies. I apologize if this shows up three or four times.)