Yes it does - 3/8 mi is a long push. My driveway is 350 ft long and then I continue to push another 150 or so feet, in order to get my banks back into the woods so I have room for snow all winter long. I also have a large parking/turn-around area at the house end of the driveway that will easily park 5 cars side by side (and allow for opening doors), and almost enough space to make two rows, without one of the cars sticking out into the driveway proper.
Much better. I don't plow commercially so I too prefer a standard for plowing. My truck is always in 4L for plowing and it almost never sees a shift. I don't see the need for ground speed while plowing - but then again, since I'm not doing it commercially, I don't have a schedule to hit. I do plow a few other people (friends, old folks - older than me, some shut-ins) that either can't afford to pay for a plow, or the likes. I easily get my banks to 8-10 feet and never ram a bank. It's a rare occassion when you get jolted in the cab of my truck.
I can't say I see a lot of plow trucks go down for tranny failures. The failures that seem most common are either from operators who really beat the trucks (and nothing is going to fix that issue), or problems like I experienced, where an otherwise good road tranny is really not meant for the rigors of plowing beyond around 100,000 without a rebuild. At that -
100,000 miles out of a plow truck and then a tranny rebuild is really not a bad performance history.