Dome Window & Vent Lid Tie-Down Restraints

The wind-out dome windows and vent lids on an Avan are only held shut by their winder mechanism, and the winder structure loosens over time. The result is a well-known Avan quirk: at freeway speeds the airflow over the roof lifts the lids and they pop up mid-drive, even when they've been wound down properly. Best case it's drag and noise; worst case a lid flogs itself against the roof for a hundred kilometres or tears off entirely.

Rather than rebuilding the winders, a couple of dollars of rubber strap and a cord stopper physically hold everything down for travel — and come off (or slacken off) in seconds at camp.

Dome windows: Flexband straps

Grunt Flexbands ($3.29 each at Bunnings) are stretchy rubber loops made for bundling tools and timber, and they happen to be a perfect fit here. Hook one over each side of the dome window so the lid is held against the roof at both ends. The rubber grips the acrylic without scratching it and shrugs off the weather. Four straps cover the two dome windows.

Vent lids: a shoelace and a cord stopper

The smaller vent lids get a simpler treatment: a shoelace and a double-hole cord stopper (the spring-loaded toggle used on drawstring jackets, $6.99 for a pack on Amazon).

Thread the shoelace through a hole in the wire mesh of the vent, then through a small hole drilled in the end of the metal vent strut, and fit the cord stopper over both tails. From then on it's a two-second job: pull the toggle down to free the strut when opening the vent at camp, and pull it up and tighten it so the strut can't extend before hitting the road.

Would do again?

The Flexbands on the dome windows: absolutely. They're a couple of dollars each, hook on and off in seconds, and completely get rid of that rear-view-mirror moment of watching a lid waving at you in the slipstream.

The shoelace and toggle on the vent lids: maybe. It works, but the cord dangles on the inside and, depending on how thick it is, can catch a bit on the roof when closing the pop-top. An alternative spotted on another Avan: screw a small hook screw into one side of the lid and hold it down from the outside with a Flexband in a triangular double fold — same strap as the dome windows, and no dangling cords inside at all.