CONFUSED? DPST

im gonna do the bed light mod and i bought a switch for it and im used to switches with 3 prongs on it but the switch i bought has 4 prongs and ive never worked with them before. ive been doing some searching about them and its a double pole single throw switch. if someone can help me figure out which prong goes to the battery and which one gets grounded and which one goes to the lights and so forth. also does it mean i can have 2 switches do the same thing? such as a switch in the bed and a switch in the cab maybe? thanks for helping

 

That is not a DPST unless it is a lighted switch. The switch should have a diagram on the side of came with a paper showing the connections.

 

Why does it look like everything on that switch is metal? If it is, I'd chuck it.

A switch doesn't care what the polarity is, all it does is close a circuit. That being said, I could pretty confidently say that the bar down the middle is seperating the sides of the switch. Dual pole means two sets of contactors, so as long as you put a wire on one side and the other directly across from that same terminal, you'll be fine. If you wire it wrong, that just means whatever you are controlling will remain on without effect from the switch, OR you won't be able to turn it on, you wont hurt anything unless you touch a positive wire to the chassis.


Also, aw113sgte, why do you say its not a DP? It has 2 sets of contactors.... only thing is it could be a DPDT, but I can't see the other side.

 

I would verify with a continuity test.

 

so i have to put one red wire (to the battery) and one red wire (to the lights) directly across from each other and then just ground a wire on a pole below one of the two?

 

so i have to have 2 wires going to the battery? im so confused

 

It basically is two on off switches side by side. They are independent of each other.

 

thanks so much that helps a lot

 

well i wired exactly how it is on the first diagram and it wont turn on....idk where i went wrong

 

Think of electricity as nothing more than plumbing. Its quite simple

 

yea im not using LEDS. im gonna run through everything and make sure my grounds are good. thanks for the help guys im sure ill figure this out sooner or later lol

 

since im the kind of person who doesnt sleep until the jobs done i finally got it all figured out and it looks awesome! thanks for everything guys really appreciate it

 

Ben, good diagram to explain the possible combinations of a DPST switch. Thanks for posting it.

 

it was simple. my ground from the lights came loose ill put pics on tonight when its dark

 

this is with only one light in....putting in the second one in a few days