It really depends upon your particular coach. Even on ours, the owners manual said that the engine and coach batteries would both be charged when hooked to shore power but turns out that was WRONG and a misprint in the manual per Monaco when I contacted them. We added a small part and now whenever the coach batteries are fully charged, it will flow over and charge the engine batteries. The switch on your dash is there to allow you to use your coach/house batteries to start your coach in case your engine batteries are low or dead. You wouldn't want them all tied together or you could end up with all dead batteries and no back up plan.