I mounted an led light bar on the roof of my truck and I have a temporary wiring situation already set up in the cab of the truck. The positive runs straight into the fuse box and the ground is on an alligator clip so I can break the connection easily. I finally got a toggle switch and what i was wondering is would it work to just wire the ground through the switch like it is the positive wire? I know it is not the right way to wire it like that but it would save me a bunch of time if it would work for right now.

 

It would work that way, it's just not the conventional way to do it. What your priority should be is wiring a fuse to the hot wire right as it leaves the fuse box. This wire will be more susceptible to causing a problem wired this way, since it will be hot all the time 24/7 365 days a year. Wired conventionally, most of the wire would be dead until you turned the switch on,, and you would probably be around the truck when they were on, sort of there in case something happened.

This is what got Ford with their big recall on the cruise switch fires. They wire this switch hot to the fuse box, and when it had a problem, it usually got out of hand when no one was around near the vehicle.

 

Okay thank you that makes a lot of sense. I kind of finagled my way around the wire being hot all the time because I chose a fuse port that only is live when the trucks key is in the on position. That should save me the problem with it at least catching fire when I'm not there! Haha. But seriously thanks for the help! And don't worry, when I've got the time I'll wire it correctly.

Thanks,
Tim