Difference in Service Manuals

PaulT1966 · Apr 10, 2014

In shopping around for a Service manual for my 1510, I'm seeing the Ford factory manuals (about 525 pages) and I'm seeing others called I&T manuals (128 pages).

At half the price, & knowing I won't be doing any rebuilding of the motor or major components myself, would the I&T Manual be sufficient?
Anyone have experience with this publisher?

Thanks!

Hooked_on_HP · Apr 10, 2014

I prefer the ford manuals because they are more detailed. I have used the IT manuals and found some wrong info in the one I was using. The IT might be fine if you are just doing general maintenance. With the Ford manual you might be able to do more repairs yourself.
Bill

RickB · Apr 10, 2014

The I&T series of manuals assumes the reader/user has a pretty broad mechanical knowledge of techniques and common repair practices. That saves them a lot of pages, ink and detail. You probably would be nearly as well off with an operator's manual and internet access to free online parts diagrams as with an I&T manual. In fact, if you aren't planning any major repairs yourself, why get the repair manual at all? I say go big or go home. buy the OEM manual or do without.

PaulT1966 · Apr 11, 2014

Thanks for the feedback gents!
I'll stick with the OEM.

buickanddeere · Apr 11, 2014

An IT manual makes a perfectly good wrapper to keep the grease off the real factory manual. The IT manual is also handy to hold doors or windows open with.

RickB · Apr 11, 2014

buickanddeere said:
An IT manual makes a perfectly good wrapper to keep the grease off the real factory manual. The IT manual is also handy to hold doors or windows open with.

They don't work well on heavy doors or windows with light sash weights.

Ultradog MN · Apr 13, 2014

I suppose if you don't have very good mechanic skills and need a manual to remind you of things like Righty tighty, Lefty loosey then the OEM is yoiur best bet.
But if you have even a general understanding of how a tractor works the I&T manual is sufficient.
I don't claim to be much of a mechanic but the I&T is all I've ever needed.

JC-jetro · Apr 13, 2014

I have never had issues with IT manual augmented with NH on line parts breakdown, Messicks and others. IT is pretty good for a condensed version of repair and maintenance topics. Nothing replaces Factory WSM and for my new rig I did get it all in PDF and print as part of my negotiated price. I don't reckon it costed me much as the dealer was eager to sell me the rig.

JC,