I felt compelled to share my experience with the Takeuchi Mfg. Co.
As, as a cynic, I was shocked and amazed at what occurred.
Yesterday, I bought a very abused Takeuchi TB035 Mini-Excavator with about 2900 hours on the meter. It was in rough shape so I got an affordable deal given that I'll do the repairs myself.
Today, at about 4:40 am, I sent an email to Takeuchi customer service inquiring about my machine's date of manufacture, some other minor questions, and, if any manuals were available.
Before 10am, David Steger (dsteger@takeuchi-us.com) had answered my questions and had emailed me the parts manual, the operator's manual and the COMPLETE SERVICE MANUAL!
About 600 pages of infinitely valuable information for FREE.
I have never owned a piece of Takeuchi's equipment before but I have had Ford, Long, Massey Ferguson, IH, Clark...
Never have any of those companies sent me the service manual free of charge.
So, my two points to be made are:
1) I'm very impressed with Takeuchi's costumer service. Especially considering that I was inquiring about a 14 year old machine.
2) If anyone needs these manuals, email Takeuchi, or me, and you will get them pronto.
ps: so far, I'm very impressed with this little TB035.