You want a "tilting" hitch mount bike rack from Thule. Stay Swedish, stay happy.

Thule 958 Parkway tilting hitch mount bike rack

I have a 1987 245 with a trailer hitch, and I've used my tilting hitch mount rack many times, with great success. The tilting feature lets the rack tilt away from the tailgate to a 45 degree angle, allowing access to the tailgate with the rack still in place.

With this rack I can do much the same as Elring, putting my Thule load bars on the roof for carrying kayaks or rowing shells.

kourt
87 245
austin, tx

A Canadian company by the name of Swagman makes a good hitch-mount rack, and has configurations that allow for moving the rack out of the way of the #5 door without having to remove the bikes.

Check out:

www.swagman.net


For roof mounts, Thule would be my preference.

hitch mount, roof mount or trunk mount?

for trunk mount racks: saris bones.

Thule. Can't ever go wrong with made in Sweden.
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1992 245 187k

I had a Yakima system for 8 years, and have had a Thule (300 series footpack and loadbars) for about 6 years. In general, it's my opinion that the Thule stuff is better. All their accessories, mounts, and whatnot, tend to have more durable steel or aluminum parts and rely less on molded plastic parts than the Yakima racks do. They both use plastic here and there. I'm just saying I think Thule uses less, therefore I prefer it.

jason

For my sedan, I prefer the Thule rear-mounted and lockable rack. Thule because of its quality. Rear-mounted because it enables me to drive the car into the garage without taking the bikes off first, and because I sometimes need the need the roof rack free for other things. The downside for a wagon is that it will block the access to the hatch.





Erling.
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My 240 Page

The 245 has full rain gutters, so the old style rain gutter towers will work. As a bonus, the long roof / rain gutters gives you lots of options as to where to put the bars.

Both Yakima and Thule offer rain gutter mount towers to which their usual round (Yakima) or rectangular (Thule) bars can be installed with. If you patiently look around used stuff sites, you may be able to get the rain gutter mount towers almost for free, since many people have them from old cars but cannot use them on their new cars that do not have old style rain gutters.

Both Yakima and Thule (and probably others) offer various bicycle mounts, most of which can be mounted on either company's base rack bars.

I have the Yakima 1A Raingutter racks with Copperhead trays on both my 92 244 and 89 245...
The 48" bars are a close fit and the 44" SQUARE style fairing blends with the Bricky look.
These racks will even survive a rollover.... as one is still in use after my 3x rollover.
On my 244 I installed some fog lights aimed to deflect 45º from the front.
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'92 244 w/ M47 (Hydra, ipd bars and springs, bilstein, urethane bushings)