Remote Starting Mule while in Low Gear

[tlutrick]

Hey guys,

New to the forum and new to having a Mule. I just bought a new 2012 Mule 4010 Trans Diesel and I'm doing some retro fitting. I have a 70yr old father that has some handicap issues and I'm looking at modifying my Mule to be visually remote controlled when he goes hunting. He can drive the Mule away from his stand or duck blind, as not to alert his game.

I'm working through a number of issues relative to throttle, steering, braking, and of course safety. One issue that I'm trying to avoid is building servo control of the shift mechanism. Since a Mule will not start while in gear, unlike a Polaris Ranger that has start bypass by pressing on the brake, I'm wondering is there an easy way to do this. I need for the ability to drive it some short distance 1/4 mile maybe, turn it off, hunt for the day, remote start, and drive it back. For safety, the brakes will be actuated when in remote control until I send a command to release the brake. This way if I lose comm, then a spring will naturally apply brake and stop the unit. Now I'm trying to figure out a way to bypass the starting safety to allow me to apply brake, start the Mule which is already in Low gear, release brake, and apply throttle and drive back to the controller.

I just acquired the Service Manual from Kawasaki, but curious if I would hurt the Mule mechanically by doing this?

Appreciate any advice....

[Ted]

My first thought (for safety sake) is to always have the system in full brake until it receives command to move, this way if it loses comm the vehicle doesn't go off in free run, it will stop till it gains comm again.