Can anyone explain what the extra valve is in the attached picture?
Is this to bypass the water hose when city water is hooked up?
If so why would that be nessesary ?
It's not OEM someone added it for some reason, but I have no idea why.
If you have a hose failure on the reel you could hook up a standard RV hose as some of those hose reels take a special end on the hose. That valve looks like a 2 way valve, that is turn the handle 1 way for reel supply and the other way for the other side for the supply. This would be a get by till you could get a replacement hose.
Mike
Yup, "belt and suspenders" approach to city water. Connect city water to that port OR through the OE hose reel hose.