I have finally got my front winch bumper from Bottorf fabrication installed. Now I am considering a few different winches. For those of you out there with a winch, what would recommend? I would be willing to buy a lightly used winch since I do not use it that much.
Do I need a 8000lbs, 10,000lbs, or 12,000lbs? Seems like the 12k it a little overkill. I do not do mudding, most all dry trails and I am still learning how to off road. I have read a few articles that the winch should be 2x the gross weight of the vehicle. The GVWR 6064lbs from for my 2003 Discovery II and the curb weight was 4630lbs.

I was looking a Smittybilt XRC10HD. Its a 10,000 winch with air. Seems like that could come in handy on the trail, but not really needed.
Smittybilt XRC10HD Recovery Winch XRC 10 HD Compressor (230413138800)

I was also considering a Warn m8000
Warn M8000 Roller Fairlead Premium Series Winch 4.8HP

Let me know your opinions

 

A 9,000lbs winch would be min.
You could get away with a good 8,000lbs one but bigger is better to a point.

Whats your budget?

 

Well, my budget is $400 - $650.
I like that Smittybilt I linked to above. Also its black. Do you have an good sites to shop?
I have noticed Smittybilt has a lot of Jeep products but I guess that does not matter. I like Warn, but seems like your paying for the name a little more than other winches.

 

Remember the max rating of the winch is when there is only 5 wraps on the drum, the more wraps on the drum then the load it will pull significantly reduces.

I "personally" would not look at anything under 9000 lbs.

 

personally I'd go with 9,500lbs. With your budget look at mile marker, they're slow but cheap.

 

Number of wraps doesn't matter, though 3 is the minimum for safety.
Layers of cable is the key when figuring pulling power. One layer, regardless if the number of wraps, will give you the rater pull (all other things being equal). As you increase layers, your load capacity decreases.
I'm sure that's what you meant, but for people unfamilar....

For the OP, if you're on a budget, shop craigslist or ebay. I've gotten really good deals off of both on used winches in good shape.
Craigslist is probably a bit safer since you can see the winch before you buy it.
But I got my Ramsey RE10000 off of ebay for $200.