I've been using these size of charge controller and batteries for
about 15 years for various tasks.

The batteries generally fail (one cell loss, high voltage on test
charge), within one or two years, but that's probably the ambient
temperatures combined with lack of temperature compensation in the
controllers.

The most predictive behavioural impact on battery life in my
applications is depth of discharge.  One mistake and the battery
switches from a nominal 5 year life to a six month remaining life.

Jim, the two products you linked to don't have temperature
compensation as far as I can see from the datasheets;

http://sunforceproducts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Model-68012_Manual.p=
df
http://www.samlexamerica.com/documents/manuals/11007-SCC-1208L-0414%20Lrez.=
pdf

You said you wanted it to be fairly portable.  Both controllers
require panels to be disconnected before the battery is disconnected.
Not impossible to make that portable, but a bit of an irritation.

For batteries not exposed to outdoor temperatures, I'm switching
slowly to nominal 12V LiFePO4 with built-in BMS.  Much higher cost,
but look at it as cost of lifetime discharge watts, and the bother of
having to replace 12V AGM batteries.

--=20
James Cameron
http://quozl.netrek.org/
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