recharable flashlight in the vehical

i'm wanting to hook up my ultrastinger in my car, but don't want to go through my cig outlet. also, i'm concerned about spikes. what is the best way to safely hook it up?

it's an old car, and the battery isn't likely in the best condition...is that a problem?

Get yourself some nice 14 or 16 gauge stranded lampcord and wrap one of the stripped ends around the bolts holding the battery cables on (screw the nut back down securely). Run the other end of the lampcord through one of the grommets that go through the engine firewall into the passenger compartment, and fasten on one of those female 12 volt cig lighter type sockets (Rad Shack) making sure you fasten the positive connection from the battery to the center pin on the socket (usually the insulation on one wire of lampcord has little ridges on it or some other markings so you can distinguish it from the other wire). For safety (always good!), you might also want to wire in a 1 or 2 amp inline fuse holder in each side of the lampcord before the socket. It's nice to be able to solder it inline, but just stripping the insulation and wrapping and taping very securely will also work.

thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Rothrandir,
Just my 2 cents but I would be very hesitant to hook up the charger directly to the battery, especially since you say the battery "isn't in the best condition" I installed a Streamlight SL20X in a new vehicle and did not drive it for
several days. When I got in to start it, it just barely turned over.
After hooking the charger through a igition switched source I have not had any problems. I was fortunate enough to have 2 cig oulets, 1 switched and 1 unswitched, so all I had to do was swap the plug.
Hope this helps.

How can you tell if it's switched or unswitched?

hmm...it might be a good idea to add a switch... thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif