I've got my bumper on order (woo!) so now I'm trying to pick out a winch. I think this is pretty critical personally, because I don't have a rear locker, so the odds I get stuck somewhere are significantly higher.
Size wise, I'm guessing I need at least an 8k, probably a 9.5k, though bigger isn't a bad thing.
The obvious answer is a Warn m8000, as that's what my bumper was designed around. However, they aren't cheap, and I'm not 100% sure they are worth the premium given my use case.
Weirdly enough, around here all the wreckers recommend Harbor Freight Badlands. Slow, and they always run badly, but they run when nothing else does apparently
Other options I've looked at are Quadratech, Engo, and Mile Marker. As best I can tell, with the exception of Warn, everyone is more or less selling basically the same rebadged Chinese winches. It's just a matter of how hard it is to find parts, and what the warranty is like. Smittybilt would have been my go to, but they just came out with a new gen which is more expensive.
Anybody have a winch they love (or hate)?