Starting Small, would this work?

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George Mason said:
I have seen units like those. They will not power my laptop  I have two of these https://www.walmart.com/ip/Everstar...-Protector-USB-Ports-and-Carrying-Case/876877

Each of which will power my 12in fan for 6 hours. What I'm looking for is a way to recharge those, to recharge my phone charger, and to run my laptop.
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Yeah, I wasn't suggesting you power your laptop off the jump pack.  Just your smaller USB items, but you have that covered. The laptop was why I suggested the lithium solar unit. [/font]
 
If you want a small lead acid get an oddesey, they got a 16ah agm. According to the specs they can handle abuse better then the generic lead acids in jump packs, an oddesey cost about the same as the jump pack in your link, you would have to add your own connectors. I recently bought one of the oddeseys as a backup to my start battery, bought used for 80 dollars, its a nice heavy battery. The generic agms in jumppacks don't last long, I was always having to replace them. The oddesey can also be used as start battery in an emergency as long as you got the right terminals. The fullriver full throttle agms are also heavy duty lead acid batteries and usually cheaper then the oddesey, I have a 27ah fullriver that is almost 8 years old, I been using it as a start battery for the past 3  months since my interstate 12 volt wouldnt crank me over.

As far as charging any agm, even a small one 100 watts (5amps) will only trickle charge it, they can handle alot of charge current. I use to charge my 17ah jumppack with my 240 watt panel. No way to overcharge an agm with solar or even cigarette plug. Its next to useless to try to charge an agm with the cigarette plug, it charges too slow, you need thick gauge wires to charge at a decent rate. Even my 240 watt panel is only trickle charging my lead acid. AGM's like to be charge at high amps.

For your situation a small lithium power station would be a worthwhile investment. I have a 31ah lithium pack that I use as a backup to my house battery. I was able to run my 12 inch laptop about 5 days (3 hours a day) before I had to recharge it. It cost money but with lithium you won't have to guess if the battery is full or not, you can charge at your convenience unlike lead acid which needs to be charged right away.

Unless you run your car engine many hours, it will never fully charge a lead acid. It might charge to 70 or 80 percent, then the battery will require many hours to charge the remainder 30 percent. And if you don't fully charge it every day, it won't last long. Thats why having solar running all day is good, it fully charges your lead acid without wasting gas. Before I had solar I had to go to the library to charge my laptop for several hours, I just didnt drive long enough.
 
I have one of those...I don't plan on using it for powering lights, computer and phone but rather want to reserve it for use for jump start needs. 

 I recommend using a lithium battery for your power needs, like the Goal Zero batteries.  https://www.goalzero.com/shop/portable-power/
I bought a Goal Zero YETI 400 a few years ago, they go from YETI 200 smallest to YETI 3000 largest.  Goal Zero makes various sized solar panels that plug right into these batteries, both in foldable style (eg the Nomad 50) or briefcase style (Boulder Briefcase 100 or 200w).  I got the Nomad 50 and can drape it over the passenger seat of the vehicle to take in sun thru the windshield and power my battery as I drive.  I also have a Boulder 100 which could be set up on the ground at a campsite to power the battery.  

Here's a blog I found on van electrical setups, which is quite complex and could point to simpler options: https://faroutride.com/electrical-system/
 
Many of my charging needs are now already met, the only thing left is to be able to run my laptop. I'd like to be able to use it around 4 or 5 hours a day watching and uploading videos. I want to start a YouTube channel mainly as a way for my kids to keep up with me while I'm gone, so if I did generate an income from it that would be nice. Charging for my phone and fans is already taken care of and proven over the past few days. In the pre covid-19 days this would have been easy. I could just stop in at a Panera or equivalent and do my business. I'm assuming that that way of life is probably gone now.
 
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