It won't really help getting it any lower, but from a "secure" standpoint your best bet would be to purchase either a Yakima or Thule base rack system to mount the basket to. One of the biggest issues with the factory bars is that they simply are not rigid enough. Either of the main aftermarket systems use steel tubular bars that are very rigid. I'm partial to rain gutter mounted systems because you can create the most spread (I used to run a 3 bar system and would use the ends for boats and some combination of an end and center for skis, bikes, roof box, or whitewater kayaks). According to their catalogs the capacity is the same (assuming 2 bars) whether you use the rain gutter mount or the upgraded factory rail. The other added benefit is that both of the major aftermarket systems are lockable to the vehicle which is nice piece of mind since they are unfortunately not cheap.
