I'm also in the market for an entry-level winch, and strongly considered the Smittybilt. When I did start looking, I saw the Superwinch LP8500 for the same price ($300), and ordered that one up instead.

I'll let you know how nice it is when I get it this week, although I don't plan to (or hoping to) use it anytime soon.

 

Had mine like 3 1/2 yrs now. No problems thus far except the plug cover is worn out. I do live in florida though so it's to be expected.

 

I'm definitely going to pick up a 10k smittybuilt as soon as I can afford it. A warm would be nice but the price of them is just way out of my price range.

 

I don't know man I'm still torn. You can get the Warn M8000 for damn near the same price as the smitty. Made in the USA, its a WARN, etc. At the same time the things that make me lean towards smitty is the warranty, but what I understand is that you have to pay extra for it? Which to me erases it as a perk. I've also been looking at reviews EVERYWHERE and there are multiple people reporting failures in their smittys. One guy on amazon claimed his wouldn't even spool out past 25'. I'm very torn on this issue seeing as I'm getting a new winch ready bumper and I want to get a winch at the same time. I think I'm going to go down to 4WParts and have a look and talk to the guys and see what they say. Here is the WARN winch I was talking about :

http://www.4wheelparts.com/Winches-W...ck-to-top-link