Are no written instructions here to stay? Wrenching with an iPad is getting old

I agree w you completely. Its really fucking irritating. At LEAST put them online and ill print them at home myself.

 

The FSM is thousands of pages. Simply not practical to sell hard copies. You could dump them all to an indexed PDF and stroll into Kinko's at 2 am to give the night shift guy something to do.

 

What exactly is it that you don’t have the written instructions for?

 

Popular items by popular vendors lol. I didn't want to turn this into a specific vendor bash. I am grateful they take the time to turn out small batch products for folks like us. But not having instructions is going to make me think twice in the future. And some of the vendors are really good about providing instructions. Even a downloadable PDF is helpful.

 

Elmer was no fan of manuals.

 

Of all the stuff I’ve bought that required assembly, I don’t recall anything that didn’t have a written guide of some kind, even if there was also a video on you tube or on an app or whatever…kind of surprised to hear of such a thing.

Even the Kinder Joy eggs my kids get have plastic toys inside with (wordless) instructions…

 

You are asking a group of alleged Tacoma owners,about written instructions.
99.9% of them, having not even broken the plastic wrap on their owners manuals.

 

alleged? look all the pictures bro. My manuals didn't come wrapped either... I wrapped them myself

It's pretty clear most of us have the paper for back-up or when absolutely necessary... but both are great in their own way.

 

because it is a waste of trees. if you want it in print, print it out yourself.

 

^This^ I downloaded the factory service manual and briefly considered printing it out at work on a nice duplex printer. Then I saw the page count. 11,000 pages. An easily indexed PDF is just fine thanks.

From the manufacturer point of view a digital manual is much easier to update and distribute than a printed version.

 

I yell at the manuals to get off my damn lawn.

 

Proof that neither of you can/did read, or maybe comprehend.....

 

I'm GenX and I agree with the OP.

A good manual can provide all the small details that will likely be missing from a video because the person making the video assumes that the person watching the video knows all the same stuff they know.

This, of course, leads to those of us that are less mechanically inclined to screw it up big time.

 

A great example is goose gear. I bought a rear seat delete. It came in a box, with a bag of hardware, that's it. Their online video of instillation was outdated and zero help. I called with questions and was told the inside of my 2021 truck didnt look like i was saying. The dude couldnt comprehend that there were changes to thw tacoma he didnt know about. I had no idea if i had all of the needed hardware or not, and ended up making it work with some modifications. For what things cost, a 0df file with UPDATED instructions would help.

Expedition essentials was awesome. Printed instructions and a video for their accessory mount.

Caliraised only has a video, but at least you know what hardware youre supposed to have, and they seem to do a superior job w their videos. Id still like a hardcopy. But, they do their best compared to others.

 

My PIAA Super Bass dual tone horns came from Japan with these instructions… no English translation at all. Pics worked.

 

I have a big TV and a laptop hooked up to it in my garage. It always has either an install video or website instructions on it while I am working on any of the vehicles.

 

It is pretty fascinating, great details in Chinese for two pages and two paragraphs in poorly translated English.

 

I find that YouTube videos are missing steps far more often than most instruction manuals. I'd be more than happy with a PDF. I'd much rather watch a video once or twice and have printed instructions on hand in case I'm unsure of something, rather than rewinding a video multiple times while I'm in the middle of working.