FAQ

Full access to TroubleshootHD at founding-member pricing. The platform is built around five core systems:

Wolf Vision — a smart PDF viewer for manuals with AI chat and citations, so you can search, ask questions, and jump straight to the exact page.

Pack Builder — lets you turn AI answers into reusable job packs (steps, parts, tools, specs). You can mix pages from different manuals and save them for repeat jobs.

Repair Intelligence — upload historical repair data (SAP or CMMS exports) to surface past fixes, failure patterns, and fleet insights Wolf Pack.

Shift Handover Wolf Pack — voice or text job logging that replaces handwritten notes. Everything is searchable so work history doesn't get lost between shifts.

Learn Mode — breaks down machine systems from your manuals into simple explanations, with quizzes to reinforce understanding.

Early users get first access to new features as they're released.

TroubleshootHD is built for tradespeople, not corporate software departments. The names are there to give the platform some personality and make features easier to recognize quickly in day-to-day use.

Wolf Vision is the manual viewer. Pack Builder builds repeatable job packs. Old Mate is the AI assistant. After a while, the names become second nature — same way every shop ends up naming its own tools, machines, and workarounds.

Underneath the branding, the platform is built very seriously. The names just stop it from feeling like another generic enterprise dashboard. And honestly, hearing someone say “just ask Old Mate” on a shop floor would mean we probably got the product right.

None. It's a subscription, not a testing program — use it however suits your shop. We'd love to hear what's working and what isn't, so we'll occasionally invite feedback through short surveys or an optional 10-minute monthly call, but it's never required.

It depends on the size of your fleet and how clean your existing data is.

For most shops, each machine model takes around 15–20 minutes to set up manually — uploading or linking manuals, assigning unit information, and getting it ready for use.

If you're also importing historical repair data or parts/stock lists from a CMMS (CSV export), allow extra time depending on how structured that data is.

Once your core fleet is set up, everything becomes reusable — so the second time you add similar equipment, setup is significantly faster.

Founding members start at 50% off for the first 6 months. After that, the discount adjusts to 25% off the regular price for as long as you stay subscribed. You keep founding-member status and pricing benefits as long as you remain subscribed.

Yes. 30-day money-back guarantee: email us within 30 days of signing up for a full refund. Your access ends when the refund is issued. After that, you can still cancel anytime with no additional fees. Your data remains yours, and your admin can export it before you leave.

No. TroubleshootHD is built specifically for technical manuals and shop workflows — not a general chatbot with file uploads. Your manuals are pre-processed and indexed so the system understands things like fault codes, part numbers, wiring references, and service procedures. When it searches your manuals, the AI receives only the relevant sections — not the full PDF — so answers stay fast and focused, and can name the page they came from.

It doesn't search the whole manual in real time.

Instead, your question is matched against pre-indexed sections of the manual using both meaning and exact matches. The system pulls the most relevant pages — including things like fault codes, symptoms, and component references — and only those sections are sent to the AI.

That's why it can jump straight to the right part of a 2000-page manual instead of guessing.

Your manual is processed in the background: text is extracted, structured, and broken into searchable sections. Those sections are then indexed so they can be searched instantly by fault code, keyword, or meaning.

Once processing is complete, the manual becomes fully searchable, citable, and available in Wolf Vision — usually within minutes.

Different AI models handle different parts of the system depending on the task.

Whichever model answers, the approach is the same: answers drawn from your manuals name the manual and page they came from, so you can check them against the source.

No. Your manuals are only used for retrieval inside your account. They are indexed so they can be searched and cited, but they are not used to train AI models.

We don't fine-tune models on customer data, and access is restricted to your organization only.

Look at the citations. Answers drawn from your manuals name the manual and page they came from, so you can look up the page and compare.

Treat anything without a citation as general guidance, not as a spec, part number or procedure for your machine.

The AI is designed to point you to the right part of the manual, not replace it.

I'm Jarrad Monger, founder of TroubleshootHD.

I'm a mechanic and supervisor with more than 23 years' experience on heavy equipment, across mining and commercial projects in Canada and Australia. I've worked on the machines, run the shifts, dealt with the late-night breakdowns, and I know the patterns very well — the same questions, bottlenecks, and frustrations carry over no matter what site you're at.

TroubleshootHD is a culmination of what I've learnt over the last couple of decades, and it aims to solve some of these problems.

The same problem kept showing up everywhere I worked. Critical information was always there — somewhere — but it was buried in 2,000-page manuals, scattered across SAP and CMMS systems, lost in shift handovers, or locked in someone's memory who might not be on shift tomorrow.

I watched too many machines sit down longer than they needed to because the right page in the right manual was just hard to find, or because the guy who'd fixed it last time was on days off.

Troubleshooting shouldn't depend on who's in the building or how fast someone can dig through a PDF. I built TroubleshootHD to fix that — to make manuals, repair history, and shop knowledge searchable in the moment it's actually needed.

I'm a mechanic who learned to build software — working with modern tools and proper engineering practices to get the system production-ready.

Every feature in TroubleshootHD comes from the shop floor: breakdown pressure, shift changes, dirty environments, and the reality of machines that don't give you a second chance. The software exists to serve the mechanic, not the other way around.

It's my full-time focus. I'm building TroubleshootHD for the long haul, and I'm all in — the problem it solves is one I've lived with for more than 23 years, and I want it fixed properly, not as a side hustle.

Yes — it's built for the conditions you actually work in.

The interface is designed for use on a phone or tablet at the machine, with fast lookups, clear citations, and minimal typing. Voice input is supported for situations where your hands are dirty, you're wearing gloves, or you're under the gear trying to work quickly.

The goal is simple: less time fighting software, more time focused on the machine in front of you.

Yes. TroubleshootHD is designed to be used on mobile devices at the machine.

The interface is built for quick lookups, not long sessions — you should be able to pull fault codes, procedures, or specs while standing next to the equipment.

It depends on whether the PDF has text in it.

TroubleshootHD reads the text layer inside a PDF — the text you can select and copy. It's designed to handle messy layouts and inconsistent OEM formatting. A scanned or photocopied manual saved as page images has no text layer, so it can't be searched: it fails to index with a “no extractable text layer” message. If only some pages are scanned, only the pages with text become searchable.

Run a scan through OCR first (most PDF editors have it built in) and upload that copy — it then indexes like any other manual. Most manuals downloaded from an OEM portal already have a text layer.

Yes, but with the same limitation as the manual itself.

TroubleshootHD always starts from the documentation you provide. If a machine has been modified outside OEM specs, the system can still surface relevant procedures, but final interpretation always depends on the technician on the ground.

Fast enough that you're not sitting around waiting for an AI response.

Typical lookups — fault codes, troubleshooting procedures, torque specs — return results with citations in a few seconds. Responses stream in as they're generated, so you can start reading immediately instead of waiting for the entire answer to finish.

The goal isn't chasing benchmark numbers. It's keeping the tool out of your way when a machine is down and time matters.

Both — but in different ways.

Senior mechanics use it to move faster. Apprentices use it to understand systems and procedures they haven't seen yet.

It doesn't replace experience — it reduces the time it takes to get to the correct information.

No — TroubleshootHD is designed to work alongside SAP or your existing CMMS, not replace it.

The intended workflow is to keep SAP as the system of record while exporting work orders into TroubleshootHD periodically. The platform then makes that historical repair data searchable alongside manuals, fault codes, and troubleshooting information.

For stronger AI results and cleaner analytics, we recommend slightly improving how long-text job reports and titles are written in your CMMS. Small changes in structure make historical repairs far easier to search later.

The in-app Work Report feature exists for shops without a structured CMMS, or for documenting useful troubleshooting knowledge and one-off repairs that would otherwise disappear between shifts.

TroubleshootHD needs a connection: opening a manual, searching, and asking Old Mate or Wolf Vision all run in the cloud. There's no offline mode today.

If signal drops while a manual is open, the pages you've already viewed stay readable for as long as you keep it open.

Heading underground or out of signal? Download the manuals you'll need from the app before you go, and save them to your phone. It opens them without the app, signal or not.

TroubleshootHD is built to work across all major heavy equipment OEMs. It's designed to handle differences in how manufacturers structure manuals, terminology, fault codes, and schematics.

Most OEM manuals can be indexed and searched successfully, even when formatting differs between manufacturers. Some OEMs may require minor tuning to improve recognition of things like fault codes or part references, which we handle as part of onboarding if needed.

In rare cases, a manual may need adjustment if its formatting is unusual.

If that happens, you can send us a sample page and we'll tune the indexing so fault codes, parts, and wiring references are picked up correctly.

This is part of onboarding for edge cases — once tuned, future manuals from the same OEM behave normally.

A scanned manual with no text layer is different — there's no text to tune, so it needs OCR first. See “What if the manual is scanned badly or hard to read?” above.

Yes. You can upload manuals at the machine level or model level, or attach them to components like engines and transmissions.

Machine and model manuals are processed in the background and become searchable, citable, and usable inside Wolf Vision. Most manuals are ready within minutes.

Component manuals open in Wolf Vision for reading, but Wolf Vision's chat doesn't search them. If you want answers from an engine or transmission manual, upload it to the machine or model it's fitted to.

Manuals are uploaded as PDFs. Each one gets the full processing pipeline, including text extraction, structure detection, and citation linking.

Lone Wolf includes 5 GB of storage and Wolf Pack 20 GB, with no limit on the number of manuals. Need more? Email me.

Answers drawn from your manuals name the manual and page they came from, so you can check them against the source.

Errors can happen in three ways: the wrong section is found, the right section is misread, or the answer comes from general knowledge instead of your manuals. Checking the cited page catches the first two. An answer with no citation is the third case: treat it as general guidance, not as a spec for your machine.

It's designed to guide you to the right part of the manual, not replace verification on the machine.

No. The system will not provide instructions for bypassing safety systems, interlocks, or factory protection features.

Troubleshooting and normal diagnostic procedures are supported, but anything that involves disabling safety-critical systems is blocked.

No.

TroubleshootHD is built to surface information faster — torque specs, fault codes, procedures, schematics — not to replace experience in diagnosing machines.

A junior mechanic can move faster with the right information, but deciding what actually applies to a real-world failure still comes from experience.

If something looks wrong, the first step is always to check the cited manual page.

If you find a genuine issue, you can report it directly in the platform. Those reports are used to improve retrieval and answer quality over time.

The system is designed to be checked against the source, not blindly trusted.

TroubleshootHD is a diagnostic and information tool. The technician and the shop remain responsible for how work is carried out on equipment.

The platform is intended to support access to manuals and historical knowledge, not replace OEM procedures or professional judgment in the field.

If there's ever a conflict between the tool and the machine in front of you, the machine and official service procedures take priority.

You do.

All data tied to your account or your organization — including manuals, repair logs, equipment records, and notes — belongs to you or your business.

If a technician leaves a shop, their access goes with them, but the shop's data stays with the organization.

No.

Each organization is completely separated. You can only access the data you're explicitly part of.

There is no visibility across shops, companies, or accounts — intentionally by design.

Yes. Your organization's admin can export your records as a JSON file, once every 24 hours. Manuals aren't part of the export: they're the PDFs you uploaded.

Your data is not locked into the platform — you can take it with you if you leave.

If you cancel, your subscription stays active until the end of your billing period. After that, your organization is read-only, and your admin can still export your data.

We'll email you at least 7 days before your data is archived, and archived data is permanently deleted 12 months after archiving. Want to come back? Contact us and we'll help you get your data back.

30-day money-back guarantee: email us within 30 days of signing up for a full refund. Your access ends when the refund is issued.

Your data is hosted on secure, modern cloud infrastructure with encryption in transit and at rest.

We use industry-standard providers to ensure reliability, performance, and data protection. Data is stored in systems designed for multi-tenant isolation, meaning each organization is separated at the data level.

TroubleshootHD has two monthly plans, Lone Wolf and Wolf Pack, billed in CAD, AUD or USD. Larger operations can talk to me about Alpha Shop, on custom pricing.

Early users get founding-member pricing, which is 50% off for the first 6 months, then 25% off the regular price for as long as you stay subscribed.

Lone Wolf — built for individual mechanics and contractors managing their own work and manuals.

Wolf Pack — built for small to mid-size shops where multiple technicians share manuals, repair history, and job workflows.

Alpha Shop — for larger operations: custom pricing, more storage, and set up with you directly.

There's no separate free trial.

30-day money-back guarantee: email us within 30 days of signing up for a full refund. Your access ends when the refund is issued.

Billing is monthly.

You can manage your subscription, update payment details, and access receipts from your account settings.

Yes, but not from the app yet. Email jarrad@troubleshoothd.com and I'll move you to the new plan.

Wolf Pack admins can add or remove seats themselves at any time from Settings, and billing changes to match.