I am surprised at how little suspension travel there is before contacting the snubbers. Is there any way around that without incurring other negative tradeoffs?

 

I've looked and there appears to be around 3-4 inches of compression travel both front and rear before engaging the bump stops. That's a lot and the bump stops should not be the cause of a rough ride.

There's nothing easy that can be done to soften the ride other than to reduce tire pressure. Unless you are running fully loaded to the vehicle's maximum weight capacity, it is okay to go a couple of pounds before the recommendation on the door. Just remember that if you do subsequently heavily load up your Rav, you should raise the pressures back up.

Less easy things are to change the tires, and to replace suspension components. The cost of these will start in the several hundred dollar range and go up. Just depends on what you want to do.

 

It might help if you indicate which RAV4 Hybrid model you own. For instance, the RAV4 Hybrid XSE is different than Limited. And hope you are not talking about Woodland (TRD tuned suspension).

Keep in mind if you lower the pressure (for example 33 > 30 psi) on your tires to get "better" ride, your tires will likely wear down faster.
If the original (Dunlop?) tires are too hard on the road for you, Michelin (OE on Lexus) is preferred by many as the softer (ride) tires.

 

RAV4 XLE Premium. The tires are Michelins.

 

Definitely check the pressures especially if you bought it recently. We've seen many posts where lazy dealers leave the pressures at the transport pressure of 50 psi.

 

Keep in mind if you lower the pressure (for example 33 > 30 psi) on your tires to get "better" ride, your tires will likely wear down faster.

On the ICE XLE I run 245/65-17 Falken Trails. The load rating charts show that size carries the same weight at 29-30 PSI as do the stock Dunlop 225/65-17 at the higher Toyota recommended pressure(35PSI). I use 33PSI front and 31 PSI rear in the Falkens and this gives a soft and cushy ride on bumps and potholes but still corners and handles well.

 

Easy, get a 3-4" memory foam pad and fit it to the seat bottom, then pump your tires up to 42-45 pounds all around and get the safest drive with the best mpg and when you get bored of the softness, remove the cushion.

The thing weighs 4-5-6 thousand pounds, under inflating the tires is going to wear them out faster, it won't start or stop as well (safely), they won't corner as well (safely) and you may be in the wrong vehicle for your lifestyle /s

Ever been on a horse, wasn't long ago everybody was, horses didn't get 45+ miles in electric and they definitely didn't ride as softly