I ahve bought a Thule 561 bike rack and have noticed that when mounted on my crossbars the rear of the rack is too long and the tailgate hits it when open. The obvious solution would be to turn the rack around, but this mean the aerodynamics would be affeected and I prefer the front fork to lock in facing the front as intended.

My question is this:- What efffect would it have if I moved the front crossbar further forward outside theattachment points. The owners manual says the crossbars must be fixed between the marked points, I can't see what the problem would be if it was further forward by just a few inches. Any advice please.

 

Was this configuration actually suggested by Thule? or was it make shift ?

 

Thule say to maintain a minimum fiiting distance of 700mm between the load carrier bars, so does this mean the fixing marks on the roof rails are there to maintain that distance if so it should be ok to move the carrier bars forward whilst maintaining a distance of 700mm.