One has to be bit circumspect regarding the advice on GoMog. One thing especially to note is that it is biased very heavily towards North American owners, and since they've not really had a new models for many years, most owners have Plus 4s and suchlike dating from the 1970s and earlier. Plus of course they have proper manly winters with months of sub-zero conditions.
As a result, their kit tends to be both much older than ours and subject to much greater stresses. A 30 year old vinyl hood is much more likely to become brittle and rip in a -30C Minnesota winter, whereas a 2 year old mohair hood in a -3C cold snap in Basingstoke is hardly likely to suffer any ill effects
