Leaderboard

https://imgur.com/a/Hreuvfn

If it's the crossbars I'm thinking about, those are just "luggage bars" that just keep stuff directly off the roof. I used a pair of them under my original DIY rack for additional support, but because they have plastic caps to attach to the rail, I wouldn't use them for much more than that. It's also possible to make a simple low-profile crossbars using some basic materials and hardware, though. For example, 1" x 1/4" flat bar can be cut and tapped to make simple channel nuts for the lower rail, which would offer more strength than the OE M6 rail nuts. The channel opening is wide enough for 1/2" hardware, but 3/8" is plenty. The top of the rail slopes at 5º, and across the entire rail length, it ranges from about -1.5º to +1.5º if memory serves. So, as long as you can overcome those numbers, you can make anything. Easiest way is generally to slot or oversize some holes, which allows for leveling things out. This is the bracket I did for the QX4's rack: This will keep the rack about 1" off the center of the roof, and up around 1.5" at the corners of the rack. It's using some simple hardware for attachment, and parts are slotted to raise it up or level it across a long range if needed. However, this design could easily be made to sit lower, even practically resting on the rail if desired, and could be done with aluminum extrusion or steel tube. Using extrusions here, though, opens up a ton of mounting options. Something that would be super simple here is an L-shape bracket that attaches to the end of tapped tubes, and is slotted so that the bar can be leveled. Alternate designs would be near-flat bracket, that attaches under the extrusion like shown, and a the 5º bend to account for the rail. There'd be a slight pitch to it because of the arch of rail, but a washer as a shim would probably resolve that. Really, there's a ton of options here, and at least with extrusions for this, you'll know you can get the bottom of the basket to only be about 1" off the roof.