Having the same problem with unchecked checkboxes that will not be send on forms submit, I came out with a another solution than mirror the checkbox items.
Getting all unchecked checkboxes with
var checkboxQueryString;
$form.find ("input[type=\"checkbox\"]:not( \":checked\")" ).each(function( i, e ) {
checkboxQueryString += "&" + $( e ).attr( "name" ) + "=N"
});