Battery and Solar woes

Qwazert wrote:

I understand what you are saying and I appreciate your input, but there seems to be a misconception regarding my "setup".
At no time do I have the solar AND shore power working together...it's one or the other.

When dry-camping (or boondocking), we will use the solar panel to keep the batteries charged, or at least that's what we used to do before the gigantic battery upgrade. The stock batteries were installed by the dealer at the time of sale, so I imagine they weren't top-of-the-line types.

When dry camping, we don't use the inside shower...rarely use the furnace...only roll up the awning during high winds...basically, we turn on a light or two at night to find our way around. When getting ready for bed, we have battery-operated taplights at bedside. In other words, we put very little demand on our batteries, other than what the parasitic loads are. The fridge is a Dometic absorption-type, so it doesn't have a compressor.
When connected to shore power, the solar panel is stashed away and is not used...why would it?
Only when we are "full hook-up" do we run our AC or furnace...leave lights on indiscriminately, etc.
Might not be the way "most" people operate, but that's how we do it.

Furthermore, all of the disconnecting and removal was a one-time thing to verify if my batteries were salvageable...I don't do it every time.

In bold type is your problem.

100W solar panel "may" have worked OK, but adding MORE battery capacity, it no longer is able to keep up with the barebones basic draw downs plus any other additional optional draws.

Since you obviously are not using a gen daily to supplement and compensate for the load demand, you are constantly drawing your battery down further and further each day.

You buddy with same rig but with a 190W panel is obviously not having your issues which leads me to conclude your panel is not of sufficient wattage to not only keep up with demand but actually put a charge back into the T105s.

To do this, you NEED voltage and you NEED sufficient current, you have neither.

2A-4A for the very short window of solar charging isn't cutting it, you need 200W-300W to get it done. This is because the typical high point of solar charging is about a 5 hr window and that is on the longest day of the yr and when the sun is directly above your panel and you have zero clouds and you are not at a high northern latitude.

If your panel is not pointing directly at the sun and is angled, it will never be able to harvest the maximum rating.

That is why your buddies system is outperforming yours and hasn't killed his batteries.

You want to stop killing them, add MORE solar and/or use a generator at your campsite to pump energy back into your batteries.