Looking at a 2020 Rav4. No separate rail, they went to pop outs. Couldn’t get anything useful off the Thule site to tell me if they have footpacks to work with Hullivator on solid square bars.
Going to fully update this and leave it up for a bit, in case it is of use to anyone else. Just got final answer.
My having the older solid square bars means the 460, not the 460R, is the mount I need for the cross bars. The 460R works with the EVO bars which even in square are slotted. The 460 mounts are now “old” and can be impossible to find.
The podium fitkit 3177 works with either the 460 or the 460R. And appears to work with a wide variety of vehicles.
Regardless of anything else, the supply chain hit from the virus is showing up. Even going to new cross bars and the 460R is mostly not in supply right now.
Anyone coming from the older model cars will have this issue, only variable is when.
Thanks for the info , I am maybe be getting a RAV 4 as a company car , which I do not want but am figuring if I do I will toss what ever Yak I buy either in it or on it, any idea if you could fit a 12 foot in a Rav 4 with the hatch open of course?
That is very annoying. My 2015 Rav4 has very sturdy rails that are compatible with the Chinese made bars that Amazon sells, which are in turn compatible with most kayak carriers. It makes me wonder if the people who design and market vehicles that are geared towards the great outdoors have ever actually set foot in the great outdoors.
Boy I long for the days of roof gutters and quick-n-ez racks! You can get a small fortune tied up in roof rack assemblies, and have to get new ones whenever you replace a vehicle.
@jpeter There is a reason that Thule went to the slotted rails that meant a new podium, to get the bearing load of their mounts back up to a more consistent level in the face of more manufacturers going to flush rail systems. In fact Honda was there a few years ago, Toyota was a hold out until the 2019 redesign. I cannot say it is a bad reason. Just that getting into this car in the midst of a pandemic and associated issues was decidedly not a good time to have to get around this. I did find a set of the 460 podiums and was able to help a friend find same, but if I was starting with all new stuff now I would just go to the 460R and slotted cross bars.
@Seth1065 I haven’t measured the wheel bed. But if you mean with the hatch open (I presume held down with something though I don’t know what) and the boat sticking out the back I suppose it would fit. But I don’t believe there is any safe way to secure the boat inside the car. Especially since these back seats do not actually fold flat like before. They made them cushier and there isn’t the air space built in to absorb the fold, so there is a rise as they go towards the front seats. I figure that is where the 2019 redesign lost some cargo area from the total space behind the front seats. So the boat would be more prone to sliding than before.
Basically I wouldn’t do it.
We just bought a new Rav4 2020 and are annoyed with the set in rail design as our 2012 rav has good rails. We will also be looking at foot packs to use our square thule bars. Not sure about putting my 9 ft inside now as the dashboard screen could get hit by accident when loading in, since it sticks out.
If you pick a good system (and are somewhat consistent with your vehicle choices), you can move systems from vehicle to vehicle. You may need to change mounting feet, but everything else can move. I used the same Thule setup for at least fifteen years (on Volvo and Audi wagons, and on a Range Rover), then used a Yakima system for another 10. I recently switched back to Thule for the slotted bar setup. Got a pro discount for some, employee (friend) discount for a lot more. Seems retired execs can just wander through the warehouse and help themselves, within reason… I gave my friend a shopping list and he came back with a trunk full of goodies…
I will save you some grief. If your square Thule bars do not have a slot, are solid, you will have the devil of a time finding a podium. For that you need the 460 podium which is extremely difficult to find in any quantity. And at least one person here has found the 460s to break more easily than the cross country mounts you probably had before.
I am going to suggest that you go ahead and get the 460R podiums and the associated square or aero rails that have a slot in the bottom of the bar.
You need a fitkit to put the podium on, those are readily available. Note that replacement hardware is NOT, so be very very careful not to snap the proprietary bolt that screws into the flush rail. The only way to replace it at the moment is to buy a second fitkit.
And yes, l am pretty much suggesting you replace with new everything except saddles, rollers etc that sit on the cross bars.
I went thru all of this three weeks ago. I like the car, a lot. Got the hybrid. The rack situation between the flush rails and changes Thule made in 2017 is a wholly different conversation.
