so, I've had very little time to work on the truck lately, so I wind up just daydreaming more about stuff i'd like to do. when I get to my paint job in the spring, I plan to add power locks/windows and keyless entry. figuring an aftermarket system is probably easier/cheaper/better than finding and swapping to the old factory ford system, I might as well go all the way and do remote start as well.

it seems that incorporating the wait-to-start feature is easy enough in our trucks, but I got to thinking about the clutch pedal interlock switch on the starting circuit. clearly its easy enough to bypass, but if I ever leave the truck in gear (which I am in the habit of doing as a safety against a failed parking brake), it would be disastrous to hit the remote start button and have the truck run over the adjacent tiny Japanese car in the grocery store parking lot - or worse, go right through my garage door at home on a cold morning. or not fully at all and God-forbid run someone over.

basically, I would never use the remote start as i'd always second guess whether I remembered to leave it in neutral.

so, I got to thinking - I bet I could make up a little electro-mechanical contraption to sit inside the shifter boot to read when the trans is in neutral. one switch in front of, one behind the shifter stub. if either reads closed (i.e. the shifter is not in the neutral position), the remote start is disabled. if both switches are open, it allows the truck to start via the remote starter.

then, I got to thinking - almost everything new that is thought of has been done before by someone else and is probably for sale out there cheaper than I could make a homemade version...

anyone know of a device like this?

 

The higher-end remote start systems have lockouts like that. It won't enable until you go through a particular sequence of putting the shifter in neutral and setting the parking brake. Some also have a failsafe where, while cranking, if the speed reading from the VSS goes above zero, it shuts down the start sequence.

I personally consider the gear to be the "primary" parking lock for the vehicle, and the parking brake to be "secondary". It's interesting that with the generations of advances in automatic transmission technology, they've never bothered to incorporate a simple mechanical parking pawl into manual transmissions. Short of that, I'd rather keep the truck in gear and live without remote start.

 

a good point - primary rather than secondary...

and yes, i'm not a big fan of gadgets and things, but since my truck is my DD and with how long it takes to warm up in this 10's and 20-degree weather, I would like very much to just push a button from inside my house rather than getting all suited up to go out and start it, then come back in a shower before work. the block heater helps somewhat, but nothing heats her up like running.

but thanks for the info - at least some systems seem to address the issues of starting a manual without depressing the clutch.

tying it to the VSS is interesting. i'd have to test it out to see how far the truck would lurch before cutting the starter before trusting it, though...