One of the biggest challenges that overlanders and long-term travelers face is water storage. Water is obviously an essential requirement for drinking, cooking, doing dishes, personal hygiene, and caring for pets if you happen to travel with them. The general rule is that you need one gallon of water per person per day. This obviously varies depending on the weather and can be even greater in hotter climates.

So a family of two people traveling for a week requires 14 gallons of water. That can be a challenge to store. For one it’s heavy. A gallon of water weighs 8 lbs., so 14 gallons would weigh 112 pounds. It also takes up a lot of space. Everyone has seen a gallon of water, now imagine trying to find space for 14 of them. This can be difficult, especially for a family like ours that travels in a Jeep JK that doesn’t have extensive space to spare.

There are different strategies for dealing with these situations and we will cover some of those in future posts. However, today we wanted to highlight a new water storage solution that we recently stumbled on from Vaast. Vaast is a company out of Australia that focuses exclusively on Portable Water solutions. Australia is one of the birthplaces of Overlanding and a lot of great products come out of there.

The Vaast team come from a heritage of sophisticated product development with over 15 years experience as design engineers. I had a conversation with the team at Vaast recently and they told me at heart that they are a product development agency, so there will be a lot more to come. “Currently we're working on a whole range of mounting brackets etc for all sorts of different applications.”

“We have a passion for 4x4 and camping that means we live the life and understand the problems. With a focus on making things easier, our design solutions are for you, the people who love exploring the world without boundaries.”

Currently their main product is the Vaast G-Series 4.7 Gal Water Tank and it is a pretty unique design. They have several additional mounting solutions currently in development, some of which are pictured above, including a gas strut pop up solution pictured on the Defender.

There are a lot of current water storage solutions on the market from companies like Frontrunner Outfitters, RotopaX, and Lifesaver. These are all unique and high-quality products, but they each have their own drawbacks. I am not saying not to buy them, on the contrary, we use some of them ourselves, but all we are saying is that there is room in the market for more competition.

Vaast water tank has some truly innovative features. For example, the tank's engineered 2-way Auto Breather and inbuilt Tap Outlet (with Quick Connect) provides fast and full flow access to water.

One of our favorite features is their built-in Tap Outlet which lets you easily fill the tank even when mounted on a roof rack. No more lugging heavy water tanks from the tap to your vehicle. The G-Series 4.75 Gal Water Tank's inbuilt Tap Outlet (with Quick Connect) and 2-way Auto Breather allow easy filling with a standard garden hose while mounted. This is huge, if you have ever tried to lift a full water tank onto a roof rack you know how big a deal this is.

They also have a unique mounting solution. Their Vertical Bracket (with Quick Release) makes mounting and removing the tank for filling or use in camp a breeze.

Run an extension hose to wherever you need water, or water access is even further simplified with the addition of their Magnetic Faucet Kit, which allows you to quickly locate a convenient access tap over a sink, down low so the kids can get a drink in camp, or just stick it to the side of your vehicle or trailer.

The Vaast tank is truly unique and innovative, and the combination of the tank, mounting bracket, and magnetic faucet provides a complete water storage solution. However, this package will come at quite a price, literally. This is especially true as you scale up the number of tanks in your system.

Please note: the prices below have been updated after discussion with the team at Vaast.

The Vaast 4.7 Gal Water Tank currently lists for $130 AUD ($92.80 USD). The mounting bracket will cost you an additional $140 AUD ($99.94 USD). If you want to add the faucet as well that adds another $79 AUD ($56.39 USD). A one-tank system with faucet will cost you a total of $349 AUD ($249.13 USD).

The three-tank system pictured above (without faucet) on the other hand will cost you $810 AUD ($578.22). While that would provide you with 14.1 Gal of storage, that is still a good amount of money.

A two-gallon RotopaX is listed at $54.95. Their standard pack mount is $36.95 and their extension mount is an additional $32.95. For comparison purposes, two two-gallon RotopaX with mount will cost you $179.80 for four gallons of storage, vs. $270 AUD ($192.74 USD) for 4.7 Gal of storage for the Vaast tank and mount.

A better comparison for a multi-tank Vaast system would be the Frontrunner 42L Water Tank Kit which includes an 11.1 Gal tank, mount, and hose kit which is currently listed for $355. A two-tank Vaast system will come in at $540 AUD ($385.48 USD) for 9.4 Gal.

Is the Vaast system worth the premium? I think that it most likely is for a one or two-tank Vaast system. The flat mounting profile of the RotopaX can be a challenge to store, and I think the vertical mounting profile of the Vaast system is more space-efficient.

The combination of the two tanks for Vaast vs. the one larger tank for Frontrunner, and the ability to fill the Vaast system more easily while still mounted make the Vaast system much easier to handle. The Frontrunner 11.1 Gal tank when full weighs 101.6 lbs. That is pretty difficult to move, especially vertically.

I didn’t include the faucet in the comparisons as none of the other companies provides a close alternative, but is a pretty good value. The closest alternative is the Frontrunner hose kit with tap.

The cost of any more than two Vaast tanks is hard to justify. $810 AUD ($577.89 USD) is a pretty large sum of money to spend for water storage, but does provide a significant supply of 14.1 Gal. The other negative is weight. Every additional tank adds 37.6 lbs in water alone. I think that we would be more likely to run a two-tank system, and then either look to refill as needed at a filling station, or with a water filter where water is more readily available in the backcountry.

While Vaast currently doesn’t have a North American distributor, they do provide shipping to the United States and Canada. Most Australian companies don’t offer this. I was told that they are currently working on setting up a USD distributor and hope to have one finalized shortly.

We are currently in the market for a water storage solution. We haven’t decided if we will try the Vaast solution yet but are leaning that way. We will let you know which way we go and what our thoughts of the product are once we get a chance to use it.

In the meantime, what do you think?