I own a 2016 Outlander and when I bought the vehicle I bought it with pre-installed Roof Rack cross bars, however, I am wanting to install an awning off the side of the car. I am wondering if the cross bars can be adjusted to a wider fit?
As I know that they are mounted by two holes within the rack, but is it possible to drill new holes and adjust the cross bars?

 

I suppose that's possible, but there are a couple things to consider. First, the rails are not perfectly parallel, so the more you move the crossbars, the more or less of an angle the mounting feet will attach to the rails. Also, because of this the position of the feet will be farther or closer apart. So basically, you can't move too far from the original positions.

The second thing I would be concerned about is the integrity of the new holes you drill. I don't have any idea if the holes are reinforced or not, so simply drilling new holes my not be strong enough to secure the cross bars. I don't think this is likely though because many racks are held on simply by friction, but I'm no rack engineer.

Last thing I would consider is that the factory distance between the two crossbars is more or less standardized. This lets you easily load cages and boxes and other mounts to the racks. If you mess with the distance, you probably won't be able to fit other equipment.

These are just my thoughts as I don't have any experience with this particular hack. If I had to guess, I would say it should work, but then again, it's not something I would do for the above mentioned reasons.