Cobra HH 38 WX ST

I've got cigarette lighter adapter in my car and it works fine. I've had zero problems with this setup.

 

I leave it plugged in at all times. There are 2 power jacks on the side of the radio. One for charging and one for dc power. I put mine in the dc power jack and leave it their. The one on the very bottom is the dc power. The one directly above, witch is slightly smaller, is the charging jack. In my opinion, I find it best to leave it plugged in the dc jack so you don't have to take it in and out of your truck.

 

There are two power jacks on the Cobra because they do different things, at different maximum currents. The jack for charging the internal battery pack is made to charge the pack at somewhere between C/4 (total charge capacity divided by 4 hours, which will heat the pack up a fair bit) and C/10, which amounts to a nice, overnight-ish trickle charge, and should extend the lifetime of the battery pack.
The other jack, that actually runs the radio, has its current limited at around 2 or 2.5 amps. The idea is that it sources enough current that even the transmitter of the handheld won't starve for power, although you *may* hear (and transmit) some alternator whine when you use it. That can be filtered out with a simple L-C filter that you can either build or buy for $15.
But the charging input won't source enough current to run the radio, and the "DC operation" input would, if not for a switching jack, make your battery pack hot enough to explode in a matter of minutes.

You should be able to slide the battery pack off the radio to charge it with its charging cord, and just use the now-lighter radio like a kinda bulky microphone to talk & listen with.

The power plugs are different sizes so as not to mix them up and have a really acrid smell wafting up from the second seat or its Velcro® tap on the dashboard.

HTH
73