"That being true, I still believe that I can perform an equalization function completely on solar without undue impact on camping style. I have done them at home although I know that doesn't count in your book. I'll say it again. Solar provides all the power I need and keeps the batteries charged and maintained. What else needs to be said?"
We need to keep running our mou----er, helping others so they don't have to learn the hard way too--or this forum would shut down!!
Camping for less than a month with solar to keep you going, then doing the real 100% recharge/recovery at home is perfect. You only need to do a real 100% once a month or even longer.
That routine is what I would call solar assist, in that you can keep going till you get home. Without the solar, you would be doing 50-90s till your capacity was down too low from "progressive sulfation." In our case that proved to be about a 10 day limit (Big Losses thread from 2010)
The next step is staying out longer than a month. This is where I have learned something now we have this seasonal site off grid with solar. Not many people will be doing that, so let them figure it out the hard way! :) No. But all I can do is say what happens when I do it, which is that the apparent "full" you get still gets the SG below baseline after a month.
Perhaps it is all stratification and not to do with being "full" I don't know. that would explain the monitors saying full and the hydrometer saying not so. Doesn't matter, you have to fix it. Split bank and solar equalize the disconnected batts is the only way I know.
If there is another way, let's hear about it with some details we can gnaw upon.
