Almost bought a winch, but decided to not be selfish and pool the money elsewhere. Glad I did.
However, Truckaddons.com just had a sale (dunno if it is still active) for ENGO E10000 Synthetic Line for $419 shipped. That's an amazing deal, IMO.
They have great reviews, no major breakdowns, is waterproof, has 85' of synthetic line, a good duty cycle, does not overheat, is reliable for WHEN YOU NEED IT, and is realtively lightweight when compared to the 12,000# winches from other brands. I compare this because the cheaper 12,000# brands and sturdier 9.5-10,000# brands are on par. The ENGO winch weighs the same as Warn, Milemarker, etc.
Do a search and read negative reviews of the ENGO winches. You'll hardly find any.
And as far as the Harbor Freight Badlands winch, do not get one.
I've read that for actual vehicle recovery, they sometimes burn out or just don't work altogether. Many use them for tree stump yanking, which is fine, but for longer pulls, the duty cycle is 7.5 seconds, in which case you need to stop and let it cool down. after 10 minutes. When moisture collects, the electricals tend to not work when you need the recovery. Also, people replace the solenoids with MM or Warn. I saw an article that the guy with a Badlands has an extra solenoid in his rig, which he orders from Summit. This is not worth the $300 tag price. An extra $50 can get you reliability and a full one-time recovery.
Hope this helps.