THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.

Comments about THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.:

I own a jeep wrangler with a spare tire on the back. The thule carrier would not fit with the spare on the back. Neither EMS or Thule carried a hitch extender. I shopped all around for a hitch extender and could not find one, until a contacted Mantelli trailer services,9865 Transit Rd. Lockport N.Y. phone: 716 625-8877. They were fantastic, I found the hitch extender for [$]

Comments about THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.:

The rack is great! Strong construction, durable, and holds the bikes great. The only thing is that the two arms which hold the bikes are secured in place with a threaded bolt. So, you need to either keep the holding arms sticking straight out when not in use, or you'd have to keep a wrench with you so you can loosen and fold the two arms down. It would be nicer to have some sort of quick-release to fold the arms down when the carrier is not in use.

Also, you need to fasten the rack to your hitch with another bolt. Again, in order to take it on and off, you'll need to carry a socket wrench with you.

I keep a tool box in my Jeep at all times, so have access to a wrench isnt a big deal, but more of an inconvenience.

Other than that, I really like the bike rack.

Comments about THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.:

Thule needs to use hitch pins rather then bolts, besides that it's Great!
I'm going to drill out the inner nuts and get a pin for it, that'll make taking the rack on and off alot more user friendly.

Comments about THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.:

To allow easier removal, it would be great if a pin could
be used (instead of a bolt) to install the rack to the hitch.

Comments about THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.:

Great Product, just wish the arms would swing down without the use of tools

Comments about THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.:

This rack is excellent all around in use and durability, except for one thing - it won't fit my Wrangler when the standard spare tire is mounted on it.
The bottom of my spare tire is about an inch too low to allow the rack to mount in my hitch, so I had to remove the spare tire to put the hitch on my vehicle. If I could move the tire up about an inch on its mounts, the rack would fit no problem, but that isn't possible. The interference is with the short vertical post at the bottom of the hitch, not with the main vertical post - this would be very close (within an inch) to the spare but would not pose a problem, if it weren't for the other interference.
The Wrangler is a 2007 model, with a U-Haul 2" hitch. A hitch that mounts lower that this may pose no problems at all - the U-Haul hitch puts the receiver almost flush to the bottom of the stock rear bumper, and the pin hole location is under the bumper. If the hitch is mounted about an inch lower, or if the pin hole on the hitch were about an inch farther rearward, there would probably not be any interference at all.
I am currently using this in combination with the ski carrier, so haven't used it for bikes yet.

Comments about THULE 956 Parkway 4-Bike Hitch Carrier, 2 in.:

The system is sturdy/stable. The biggest challenge for me is lifting up the bikes to get them on past all of the fittings for additional bikes. It holds four, we got four on and traveled safely to a bike path. Didn't affect driving at all.