Environmental effects may also come into play. Gears are probably designed and qualified to operate with certain temperature limits. A gear in a bay at FL410 may get cold, but it doesn't have to do anything. But a deployed gear may have to be retracted, and if the hydraulics aren't intended to operate at the prevailing temps it may not work as advertised.
Certainly on some products the flaps and gear are qualified to an operational envelope which assumes low altitude use and so limits the low end of the temp scale.
Just a thought ...