It wouldn't have, however, protected me from denting my hood: piece of wood flew out of my grapple and smacked on top of the top front corner of the hood. Interestingly, I'd also managed to dent my Kubota's hood! An involuntary christening, I suspect (both incidents happening early-on) 
Hi Hard Knox. I HOPE you still monitor this site... I just read some posts from 2016 about the peddles on a hydrostatic range shifted Kioti NX Series tractor. I just purchased my first ever tractor. I've never operated one before. It is a used NX4510 HST CAB.
Hi 3-point. I'm new to tractors and this site. I'm having an issue much like you described in your 2016 post concerning your hst being out of calibration. If you still monitor this site could you write me back and try ro help me?Hard Knocks, thanks for posting this. I think it may indeed be the explanation for what I thought was the transmission popping into neutral the few times it happened to me with my NX4510HST cab. Last night I spent 45 minutes grading our access road and did some experimenting. Pressing simultaneously on the forward/reverse pedals, even lightly, caused the HST to go into safe mode and the Calibration light to come on as you describe. I then had to wait a few seconds before either pedal would make the tractor move again. It was only about three seconds, but if, in the meantime, I pressed either pedal, safe mode would not clear until I kept my foot off the pedals for the full three seconds. It is easy to see how this could produce an endless cycle for a few moments, as the tendency is to keep trying to nudge the tractor either forward or backward while fiddling with the range selector lever.
Thinking back again on the few times I thought the tractor was popping out of Mid range into neutral, I now suspect this is what was happening instead. Unlike in Eric's case, I heard no sound to indicate the shift lever actually moved. And while I wasn't looking at the shift lever as it was happening, it seemed to be in the same position the whole time, and the range indicator light on the instrument panel continued to display "M". In a post above (#1101), I noted that raising and lowering the FEL allowed the tractor to start moving again, hence my speculation that this might be related to hydraulic flow. Now I suspect that just keeping my foot off the F or R pedals while I worked the joystick was actually what cleared the condition, just by allowing the safe mode enough time to clear!
This morning I went through the owner's manual for the NX seriein your 2016 0ist s to see if there is any mention of this "safe mode" feature. Nope. I only saw only one reference at all to the Calibration light (in Sec. 4-19), and even that was simply to identify the light on the instrument panel. Nothing at all about what the light means if it comes on. Sec. 4-16 identifies the Calibration switch, located on the right-side fender cover, but says only that "The switch is to calibrate response of HST. Only for service," and says to contact the dealer "if you need to calibrate the action of HST."
Hard Knocks, do you know if the "safe mode" feature that we're talking about is new with the NX series? Seems to me this is something that Kioti should add to future printing of the owner's manual. Probably even worthy of a "sticky" on TBN's Kioti forum.
Time will tell if this is really the answer to the "popping into neutral" issue in my particular case. But seems to fit.
Hi Pete, welcome to TBN. The condition you describe above in your question to Hard Knox (post #1,313) is not what I was describing in my observations back in 2016 about depressing both the forward and reverse hydro pedals at the same time. In my case, it was indeed simply the system going into "safe mode" for about 3 seconds. No out-of-sync calibration and nothing wrong with my tractor. Once I understood the safe-mode issue, and have been more careful with my big feet, it's been a non-issue for the last 6 years.
Hopefully Eric can advise on how hard it would be to get to and replace the switch assembly. And whether there's an easy way to adjust the shift lever linkage before going to that length.
Hi threepoint, thanks for the reply. I'm going to have to do something because aside from finding the right range, it is getting rather tough to move the shift lever. I don't want to force it. I suppose I'll have to have the Kioti dealer look at it.Hi Pete, welcome to TBN. The condition you describe above in your question to Hard Knox (post #1,313) is not what I was describing in my observations back in 2016 about depressing both the forward and reverse hydro pedals at the same time. In my case, it was indeed simply the system going into "safe mode" for about 3 seconds. No out-of-sync calibration and nothing wrong with my tractor. Once I understood the safe-mode issue, and have been more careful with my big feet, it's been a non-issue for the last 6 years.
Your case is a different issue, since it involves the inability to restart the tractor until you fiddle with the shift lever. I tend to agree with Eric's thought that your shift sending unit, part 52 in the diagram, might be what's causing your symptoms. Your condition indeed sounds like it's related to the safety switch, but whether it's a tempermental switch, or an out-of-adjustment shift linkage that's triggering the safety switch, I have no idea.
BTW, I notice that Hard Knox has not been seen on the forum since November, 2017, so I doubt he'll see your post! Maybe a private message would be relayed to him?
It's probably fair, I'm just tight. That is almost 3 days pay just to transport it. No telling what the repair might cost?