Mystery toggle switch

[mpumphrey04]

I have a mystery toggle switch near the water pump affixed between the couch and water tank in my '67 Safari. Its wires run through the subfloor. It doesnt seem to operate the water pump. Anyone have an idea of what this operates if it is original?

[Rog0525]

My guess is that it might be an auxillary switch for the water pump, possibly installed by a previous owner to avoid the risk of anyone accidentally running the pump when the tank is dry (not a good thing to do). It's all too easy to mistake the wall switch as a light switch.
Have you checked to see if both the wall switch and the toggle switch need to be in the 'on' position to operate the water pump? If that's the case, it sounds like a good safety precaution.

[mpumphrey04]

The switch doesnt seem wired to the water pump. It also seems that there is current on both sides of the switch when it is off so I guess its bad and something is getting juice somewhere. This will take some more investigation. Im guessing this switch wasn't an original item.

[TomW]

My '67 owner's manual has wiring diagrams of all 1967 model year Airstreams, and none of them show the switch you describe.

A guess is that the switch is in series with the charge wire. Switching it OFF may result in

• Not running the tow vehcle's battery down if still hitched while boondocking
• Not running the battery down if some prankster pulls the breakaway pin
• More security - the electric tongue jack (if equipped) would not operate.

Tom

[dwightdi]

A master switch for the battery can not be a toggle switch. You need a much huskier one for that function, otherwise you will have too high a voltage drop. Master switches for the batteries are good for many reasons. Marine grade rotaries are best.

[Mike Lewis]

Disconnect one leg of the switch and put an ammeter in series with the wire and switch. This will register any current flow if something is on. Is it possable someone may have installed an aux. fan behind the fridge?? This switch may be for something like that.----Pieman

[juel]

When I got my Argosy it had a mystery switch on the cabinet wall on the side of the coach with the refrigerator. The wires for the switch ran across the floor under the carpet and connected by the water pump. When you turned the switch on a red light came on under it but we could never decide what it acturally did. Since we wanted to put wood floors down we knew we could not have these wires running across the floor. We asked the same questions you are asking about its purpose. In the end it turned out to be for what must have been a fan in the outside refrigerator compartment. The fan was no longer out there but there were wires leading from this switch to the outside compartment which we found as we started pulling the switch out. The coach and the pump and the refrigerator all seem none the worse for wear after removing all this. I guess since this Argosy came from New Mexico, they needed something to cool that outside compartment.

[wahoonc]

The cooling fan for the fridge coil is a pretty common upgrade on the absorbtion type fridges. IIRC they now come installed from the factory on at least some units. It helps move air over the fridge coils and carry the heat away, if you didn't quite often the fridge couldn't/wouldn't cool down enough to safely store food in.

Aaron

[Rivetedude]

Originally Posted by dwightdi

A master switch for the battery can not be a toggle switch. You need a much huskier one for that function, otherwise you will have too high a voltage drop. Master switches for the batteries are good for many reasons. Marine grade rotaries are best.

It could be a toggle switch to connect/disconnect the battery if the switch itself powers a relay. But the relay would probably have been noticed before the switch as it would take a pretty good sized relay. I would agree with the boondocking idea, except it would only have power on both sides when plugged into the TV.

[wahoonc]

Do they make one of those signal generator things for 12 volt circuits? I have one for 120v...works great in tracing where wiring runs and to where. I discovered a buried receptacle at one my houses that way.

Aaron