Control 1 Light From 4 Switches

I have a 86 Toyota 4runner. From the factory there is a switch on the dash as well as in the rear cargo area that turns on a light. It works like a 3 way switch, you can turn the light on/off from either switch, regardless of what positon the switch is in. I'm wondering what the wiring looks like to have 1 light controlled by 4 switches, where I can turn the light on from one switch and then turn it off from another switch, and vise versa.

Wire it up with a 3 way switch on each end and then as many 4 way switches in between as wanted. 4 Way Switch Wiring Jim1968 Chevy II Nova Garage Find 2012

1973 Nova Custom

1974 Spirit of America Nova

1973 Nova Pro-Street

So for switches, you'll need 2 SPDT and 2 DPDT. The DPDT switches will be wired as reversing switches.

honestly, and this is just me, to uncomplicate things I would use a momentary to latching relay and momentary switches . takes a momentary signal input and latches/unlatches the signal to the fan or anything you want.   this way push any switch and the fan etc will turn either on or off with less wiring.   each switch gets only 3 wires, a ground in and 2 wires back to the relay. the power to the fan comes from the relay. relay exampleGary Sather

Custom_Jim wrote: Wire it up with a 3 way switch on each end and then as many 4 way switches in between as wanted. 4 Way Switch Wiring Jim

Thanks Jim! For a DC circuit is it still referred to as a 3 way and 4 way switch? Or would it be a SPDT and DPDT that Ween had mentioned?

tonanzith wrote: honestly, and this is just me, to uncomplicate things I would use a momentary to latching relay and momentary switches . takes a momentary signal input and latches/unlatches the signal to the fan or anything you want.   this way push any switch and the fan etc will turn either on or off with less wiring.   each switch gets only 3 wires, a ground in and 2 wires back to the relay. the power to the fan comes from the relay. relay example

I do like the sound of that setup, but currently my vehicle already has 2 3 way switches from the factory, so I would need to end up replacing those switches if I went that route. I'm slightly leaning more towards just adding 2 additional switches to the circuit.

I found this image online showing a single 4 way switch with two 3 way switches.

I've added another 4 way switch into the circuit. Is this how it should be wired?

No, Duplicate the 4-way (reversing) as in the first diagram. Wire additional switches in series.

The common terminals if the first DPDT switch will connect to the common terminals of the second DPDT switch. The remaining terminals cross and connect to the SPDT switch.

Ween wrote: The common terminals if the first DPDT switch will connect to the common terminals of the second DPDT switch. The remaining terminals cross and connect to the SPDT switch.

Thanks for the quick response! Do you mean like this? Normally I consider myself pretty decent when it comes to DC wiring, but this in particular I just can't seem to wrap my head around.