I will add my experiance...

I have owned a Warn 12K Electric industrial winch for over 12 years...in that time I have probably winched with it over a 100 miles (sure seems like it) it DOES work under water..(quite frequantly) it WILL pull my Bronco quite some distance with two huge lead acid HD Interstate batteries (easily out of a stream as an example) and it's plenty tough. It is also as small as I would go on a M-715 (at least if you get into mud), mine being mounted for most of those years on a 78 Bronco...it was always enough winch but a few times I was wondering...

Milemarker HYD units are "ok" but when used hard and a lot, they seem to end up a bit short of durable in my experiance with them...(based on a few friends that own them and have suffered failures when they needed them the most)

REAL hyd winches like the Ramsey as an example are VERY tough...but to be happy they need a fair sized fluid resivour and proper plumbing of the valves/filter/cooler.

My new trail rig will be sporting a transfer case driven 20K+ PTO shafted/250' of cable winch mid mounted...it's a smidge heavy but it should prove rather durable And besides a 3spd winch makes for some great line speeds and awesome control with an automatic transmission.

NoRM