I just got back (literally) from a 3 day wheeling/camping trip in France with a local German Off-road club. My wife and I were with 6 other vehicles, none of which were well equiped, and most had street tires (Their idea of "off-road capable" and mine were not exactly the same, but thats another story)
Anyway, the place we were at was a huge farm, all natural terrain with big hill climbs, tons of mud and water, and deep ruts from over use. I had the only winch in the group, and let me tell you it got a work out this weekend. I made 14 full-on recovery pulls (some straight, some with every peice of recovery gear I had, multiple blocks etc.) this weekend with my Smittybuilt XRC8, and it didnt hick-up at all. Yes, it is slow, but it works great. I have had mine completely under water and mud many times, amd it still works flawlessly. The only thing I have done to the winch is replace all of the screws/bolts with stainless steel, because the stock ones rust very quickly.
I am buying a 10,000 for the front of my truck, and will put this 8000 on the rear. I have made about 25 pulls total with mine, and some of them were pretty hairy situations, any one of them have easily made this purchase worth every penny. Except for speed, I will put it next to a Warn 8000 pound winch any day. I have used both, and there aint that much difference.
You will have many nay-sayers, Warn this, Warn that, but for the price, you wont find a better deal.
my $.02 ~James
. I had to call tech support for correct instructions. They were VERY helpful (and apologetic for the problem, a rarity) and with their phone instructions I was easily able to "clock" the housing. 
