VW Panels and Batteries - a few questions

[altpwr]

Hi,

I recently purchased several 12v, 1.4Ah drill batteries and planned to wire them for a 12v system using a few vw polar panels to feed them.  The reason drill batteries tickled me is that I was looking to charge them in a regular ac charger prior to bringing them up to where I need the power.

I really have 2 questions..

 Is the battery idea feasable in your opinion?

 Being that the blocking diode is in the vw panel wire, I would like to keep that all as one unit.  Do you know of anyone who makes multiple female ends of a cig lighter, that ties into one wire which would go into my battery bank?  Is this something I should home make??

Thanks in advance,

Altpwr

[DERFMOOSE]

  check with your local RV dealer. car parts. or make your own go to the wrecker and get a bunch of lighter sockets a piece of metal roof works good make a bos to put them in.My drills charger uses a plugin on the battery holder find same type of plug for use

[tecker]

   I would take an old charger and wire to the charger's battery connector taking time to install a bypass switch to alow use as a standard ac charger . At the same time put in your male cig adapter . Put a female cig adater on the panel .Now your good to go

for auto or panel charging .I assume the this is a solar panel .If you take the time to

dig into the charger there should be a bridge in the charger that the connection could be established to give charge control.Wire on the DC side of the bridge of coarse .

 I've got a pile of Ryobi batteries on solar charge this works really good . The batteries seem to last longer with a slow solar as opposed to the fast charge of the ac charger.

[altpwr]

You are the master......

I never would have thought about setting it up for both the panel and AC.

a Million thanks.  BTW, how many Ryobis do you have?