I am currently looking for a winch for my rig, a 2012 Jeep Wrangler Sahara. Has anybody heard of Smittybilt Winch? They are currently on sale. I am really tempted to place an order.
I have this one, but I will tell you that I paid less than this "sale" price for it when I bought it. You may want to shop around to find a better price. http://4wheelonline.com/jeep/Smittybilt_X2O_12K_Waterproof_Winch_Gen2_Synthetic.243846.0
As far as the performance and quality of the winch, I have been very happy with mine. It pulls me out when I need it to, and it pulls others out when I need it to. Only issue is the clutch lever can be sticky at times but I have started lubing it more often to resolve this issue. In the time I have had it, the wireless remote battery died on me once, but since it comes with a wire lead as well it did not leave me stranded. I would highly recommend this winch to anyone.
I had an XRC8 Comp winch on my Samurai for years, and it got used a lot with zero problems. The main complaint everybody had with them is that they are hard to free spool the line out to due VERY sticky grease inside. The fix is to clean out all the factory sticky grease, and re-grease it with normal wheel bearing type grease. That helped mine tremendously. I believe there was also something about the detent ball for the lever sticking occassionally, and that should be greased as well. I did all that many years ago, so don't remember all the details. I bought mine from 4wheelonline.
Had a xrc8 on my trailer for years. Its in my building now. The solenoid pack fried randomly not longer after I got it. Smittybuilt sent me a new one, no questions asked, and it worked fine from then on.
Smittybilt has been around for a while now. I have a 9500lb synthetic rope on mine. I wired up some in-cab controls which is very nice to have. I keep a cover over the winch when parked to keep the rain off and the sun from breaking down the rope.
I have put it thru only one VERY hard pull so far with great success. I will say it is slow, but it works very well. My buddy has a 10,000lb on his Jeep and it’s been used a bunch the last 3 years with no complaints.
I have had good luck out of my 10k smittybilt. It is super slow but I have used it to pull myself and others out of some tough situations several times over the last 3 years. Knock on wood I haven’t had any issues. I have it wired for in cab controls so I can’t really speak on the remote.
