General Electrical Question

I'm wanting to put a couple lights in the bed. Similar to the ones a lot of people have used under the hood. LED

I'd like to have a switch on both sides (I know....first world problems).

Anyhow, I'm thinking if I run the hot all the way around (I think one would call this 'in parallel'...basically run a hot wire past both lights, and tap the positive off each light into that wire), then the same for the negative. and at both ends of the negative, put a switch that goes to a chassis ground...so when you flip either switch (or both I guess), the lights get a ground contact, and come on.

In my mind it works, but am I missing something? Some reason to not basically do a double ground (potentially anyway...both switches on...could happen I guess)? Some other reason this wont work or be dangerous in some way?

Thanks in advance

 

Do this:

 

your "plan" will work, but you want to fuse AND switch the positive side, not the negative.

 

Would that turn on one light per switch or both with both? Looks like one per switch to me, but my DC knowledge is lacking.

 

I thought your question was electoral question help, i couldve helped you there, more of a political guy than an electrician

 

LOL

 

So you need 2 on-on Switches. the first one +12v to the center, then the top and bottom both get ran to the other side. They get hooked opposite of the first switch. The middle leg wound go to the lights. Then the lights grounded to complete the circuit.

 

just use a single pole double throw, ON-ON switch

 

Just to be complete, this is what I had in mind. Not arguing that it will or wont work...consensus seems to be it's not the best way, and I believe you guys...just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page.



The blue in the center is the lights, needless to say.

Guess I need to look into on-on switches....Amazon here I come lol.

 

OK, so according to that it's not that far off from a 3-way switch setup in a house. 2 travellers, power in and out on the common...in this case, the center. I guess that's what Yamadirtrider was talking about too. Many thanks to all.

 

Your way would work but need to turn the same switch on and off, not being able to grab either side

 

If you have a On/On switch, how do you plan to turn one of the sides off?
Maybe a SPDT 3 position switch is a better idea. On/Off/On

 

Even if I ground both ends of the black wire? Just trying to understand. I had it in my head that if I flipped either switch on, and made the ground contact then the lights would come on. But looks like the 3-way-ish circuit drawn out above would be better....or at ;east as good, and the right way to do things (switching hot instead of negative)

 

Both are good options.

The second limits you to only being able to turn the lights on if the right switch is on in either I or II. So if the right switch was in the cab you could always turn off the bed lights, but you wouldn’t be able to turn them on from the cab unless the bed switch was already on. More so if the cab switch wasn’t in I or II then the bed switch would be worthless. So... I like the first diagram better.

third opinion is run the hot to the both switch commons. Run the I to the right side bed lights + and the II to the left side bed lights + for both switches. Run the - to the battery- that way you could have in cab control and in bed control of right or left side of bed lights. The draw back of course is if you leave either switch in the on position the lights will stay on in option three

 

Here is a good link on various types of switches


https://www.littelfuse.com/technica...ehicle-technical-center/poles-and-throws.aspx

 

One light per switch. And as noted you will want to properly fuse the hot lead properly.

Edit:
I misunderstood in my original post. I thought you only wanted to turn on one side at a time independently.

You want both to operate with either switch. SO skip my drawing as it will not do what you want.

 

You can put the switch on either hot or ground. Dosent matter. Just make sure you use a fuse on the hot side close to the battery.

So that’s why I said use an on/on switch and not a on/off/on switch so no matter what position the other one is at you can turn them on and off.

 

Because of how the other switch is position. If the 1 switch’s is up, and the other is down the through connection is broken but as soon as either side is flipped to match the other switch. The circuit will be completed

 

The way I "read" the drawing, that's what I thought...but like I said, my wiring know how is pretty slim. In a house, no problem...(I used to say) in a truck, no can do. But it looks like, at least for this circuit, it's very similar to using 2 switches for one light/set of lights in a house...top and bottom of stair, for instance.

Thanks to all that have posted and are still posting. With the new knowledge of very similar setups AC vs. DC, it looks like Yama's drawing will do the trick.

 

Oh Ok. I was thinking he was wanting to run 2 different sets of lights independent from each other.
1 set of LEDs on each side, and each set could be turned on or off separately.
The most confusing parts was , “why would you want to do this.”
But he isn’t, so you got him taken care of.

Nice Job