Right, but when your out wheeling and stuck in a bad situation, it comes down to a couple things at least for me it does, which would I rather have no winch waiting for enough extra money to buy a "good" winch, a basic winch that isn't the best but will work when needed, or one of the winches that cost more and still couldn't finish the test. They make excuses for why this winch and that winch failed, but I'm sorry when I'm sitting in the middle of nowhere on the skid on a peice of ice, I don't care how well my winch works, as long as I get to drive home at the end of the day. But hey, thats just my opinion on things, and thats why I have a Harbor Frieght winch sitting on the front of my Jeep.
Oh, I agree that having a cheap winch is better then no winch at all especially if you're in the middle of nowhere. Those guy's who wheel close to home don't really have that sort of problem.
I would have liked to have seen actual models named of all of the winches, not just the finishing three. They end up generalizing a brand to whatever model they choose. Also, a lot of those winches, T-Max, Mile Marker, Bull Dog aren't really any better then a CE. At least the CE is a Ramsey. A friend of mine had his T-Max grenade under mild use. (It's Chinese made like the other two.) The CE is an older Ramsey but one that's been around for a while and has proven itself.
Also, they're using a Warn 9.5XP which is one of Warns Ultimate Performance Series. So basically you're paying more for it right off the bat. The law of diminishing returns come to mind. They probably could have done just as well with an older Warn like the XD9000 or even a M8000. These are a lot cheaper but are as strong as any other Warn and have years of use to back them up. You can still find the occasional Tabor 9000 for under $500 as well. They went up in price after Warn acknowledged the brand as theirs, which is a bit sad. I wouldn't have any problems getting a used Warn either. M8274's can be had for as little as $2-300.
That said, bought my M8000 for $417. This was before they upgraded the motors so it's slower then the current model. I've got no complaints though. You can even buy a new M600 for that price today. It's slow and not nearly as cool as a lot of the new winches but it's solid.
