Unknown Switches on Dash

We are second owners of our motor home and there was practically no additional manuals that came with it. There a 2 switches installed in the lower part of the dash to the right of the steering column. One is white and one is red. The white switch is a momentary on switch that appears to be spring loaded to off. The red switch appears to be simply an on/off switch. Interestingly the white switch will apply power to the Garmin 1050 when it is held closed but as soon as you let go the Garmin shuts down. Also the red switch, in the on position, will light red but only when the white switch is held down. These are not OEM switches. I suspect the white switch was installed to bypass the ignition switch to provide power to the Garmin with having to turn th ignition switch on. But it may be malfunctioning. Does anyone else have these? I will try to attach a picture.

Is that the only white momentary switch on the lower panel of the dash?  If so, then that button is used in the process of jump starting your Ford engine should that battery be drained. As long as you hold the button a relay kicks in and allows coach batteries to charge up the Ford battery.  Notice I didn't call it a jump start button, as the size of the wire is not large enough for a quick jump start... It takes a minute or two for the Ford battery to charge up enough to start the engine.


If this is an additional momentary button, I don't know what it would be. Trading the wires would be required.



The red button may require some tracing of the wires. If I were to guess, it is likely a master On/Off switch for the entry step. In the off position the step won't move. This is useful for many situations...  Keep them in. Keep them out. Reduce wear and tear from extra cycles. Safer to work on them knowing they're not going to move ant cut off your fingers during a repair or lubrication, etc etc.  I added one for this very reason.


Another guess would be a secondary power for the Garmin/stereo... But usually that is not an On/Off switch. Instead it is a On/On switch with one position providing power from the Ford battery and the other position providing power from the coach battery.   Look on the back side of the red switch and see how many wires are attached. On/Off would have only 2 wires,,, not 3.  If 3 then the middle one will go to the device being powered and the other 2 go to the power sources.   There could be a short looped wire in the situation from one post to another for the light... Don't include that in the count. Just count the wires that connect to the switch and go into the dash.




Larry

They are OEM from the manufacturer. The white switch is your emergency start switch for if you accidentally leave something on that drains your truck side battery it will apply the coach side batteries to your truck side so you can start up your rig. The red one could be for your outside mirror heat to defrost them but im not sure about that. My mirror heat switch is located right above the power mirror adjustment knob. As you figure out what everything is it would be helpful to label them. IM sure others will chime in with your correct answers

LRUCH and WIDEGLIDE have identified the white switch. However, note that there is a specific way to use that. If your Ford battery is too low to crank the engine, it will take some time for the coach batteries to charge it enough to do so. The white switch energizes the relay on the firewall to connect the coach batteries to the Ford battery, but because it is a momentary switch will only keep it energized when held down. The process is to hold down the white switch and turn the Ford key switch to "On" (NOT "Start"). After a minute or two enough charge will be transferred for the relay to be held energized through the key switch that is "On", and you can release the white momentary switch (but leave the key switch "On"). It may take 20-30 minutes for enough charge to transfer to actually crank the engine.
On my unit (2019 2552), the red switch in the same location activates my rear docking lights that I had installed as an option from Phoenix.
Mike