I think it'd be pretty tough to get a piece of garden hose over the hook - and I seem to recall from the dim past the originals were a coated/treated fabric of some type .... I've always used 10 speed bike tube pieces on the chains, fairly easy to get over the hook and flxible enough to work well
(....)
But when you let it down, there will be nothing to hold it up level.
most trucks originally had no back bumper, so that wouldn't be a problem
Bill
