What is this?

[markopolo]

A guessing game. What is this? Or better, what is this used for?

It measures about 4 inches across.











I know what it is because I removed it from my custom camper van.

Hints & clues........

1. I'm 99.9% sure it is custom made.
2. It was attached to something that is bought in a store.
3. I saw it and assumed it was just part of the store bought part until curiosity made me remove it.
4. Now that it has been removed I'll leave it off but will install it again if I ever sell the van.
5. With it removed, I gain a nifty feature that I will use often.

No prize for the correct guess, just the envy of your peers

I'll add hints or clues as necessary..........

[Photog]

A mount for a water filter?

[markopolo]

Nope! Good guess though.

Another hint:

Mostly, I've seen the store bought part in the color red. In my van the store bought part is black.

[booster]

Fire extinguisher holder?

[markopolo]

Another good guess........... but no.

I installed the same store bought part in my B+. It was red. The custom part in the photos would have limited its options........

[Johnny R]

My kids and I would do this to each other. A really frustrating game when I can't guess.
Anyway, might be a mount for a propane tank. But of course, we'd know right away it was not part of the van.

[markopolo]

Ok Thanks for trying. With the few clues I gave it was pretty much impossible to guess.

This is the store bought part:



The custom made part in the first post fits perfectly over the battery switch and prevents you from using the "Both" option on the switch.

I thought it was an "A", "B", "Off" switch until curiosity made me remove the white metal custom piece.
It is an "A", "B", "Both" & Off" switch. Its original purpose in my van was to let you route the solar charge controller output to either the house battery or the engine battery.

However, when I'm parked and plugged into shore power and the old converter is supplying around 13 volts I can turn the switch to "Both" and keep ALL of my batteries at a float charge level. This means I can turn the van ignition key in reverse to power up the in dash stereo when I'm parked and the engine battery won't discharge.

I think the "Both" position is safe enough to use as long as all of the batteries are near full charge. When I first tried the "Both" position the engine hadn't been run in a week and I had been playing with the stereo so the engine batteries were down a bit. I measured 1.25 amps flowing to the engine batteries. That is not much current. And yes, two engine batteries for the diesel motor and one group 31 house battery in this RV.

This will be ok as long as I remember to switch from the "Both" position when it is not needed. That is why the custom made "preventer" was on the switch.

It must has taken a lot of time to custom fabricate that part. There are lots of custom metal parts in the van. Basically if the builder needed a bracket he made it.

[Johnny R]

Good one!!