I had cross bars installed by the dealer when I purchased my RAV4, 2014. There are stickers on the roof rack showing exact placement of the bars. My husband wants to move them since I am now caring a kayak using the Malone J rack and he feels the bars are too close together. My neighbor's RAV4, 2014, does not have the stickers on her roof rack, so I am wondering if we could move the bars so they are a little further apart. Any comments will be appreciated.
Roof luggage carrier precautions are covered in the Before Driving section of the owners manual, the main concern is the 102lb weight limit, the recommended spacing is for wind noise reduction I believe.
Note that the roof rack weight limit is only 100 lbs., not 102. Those stickers are for Ravs that have a sun roof. If you were to have the crossbar too forward, when you used the sunroof tilt function, the glass would hit the bar. I have a Thule SlipStream kayak holder myself and I know that the required spacing for that model is crossbar spacing at least 24" apart. Hope this info. helps.
For those who are not aware of the cross bar placement . . .
When I wanted to space my cross bars further apart, the front bar would not mount securely just behind that little sticker. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the longitudinal bars are not parallel on the RAV4. The factory/dealership mounted the crossbars further back on the rails and if you try to move the forward bar closer to the front of the car, it does not seat firmly.
When I installed a rooftop bicycle carrier, I noticed that the width of the front crossbar is adjustable. On one side, (passenger, I think), there are two allen screw bolts on the underside of the crossbar. Loosen them to pull the mount bracket to the furthest apart position, re-tighten the screws, and the bar will now fit firm on the longitudinal bars firmly just behind that little sticker.
Note, after mounting the bike rack, I was concerned the rear of the sunroof in the tilt position would strike up against it because the fork mount extended further forward than the crossbar, (and I had the crossbar right up against that little sticker). It did not touch. I think the "forward limit of mounting the crossbar" is because of something else than a tilted sunroof hitting it.