I'm always ready to post pics of my setups. i ran a ramsey 8000# with rope for the good part of its adventure workouts. slow but out pulled anything i could use it for. just slow due to thick gear lube packed in it and you get that with alot of them winches that are on the cheaper side. not as big a deal in warm climates but worse in the colder areas. no biggie just swap out to better lube. ramsey has my vote. with that said i got lazy and wanted a bit more reliability and faster line speed and this led me to go with warn as a reliable setup and now have versions more budget friendly with same reliability. so i looked to morris4x4.com as they had a decent online offering and i was able to pick a warn vr-8 up for under $500 and to my door in under a week. I'm very happy with decision. i was looking at the smittybilt x20 with wireless remote, which my buddy picked up just before i got mine. i was after the same but for about the same price i opted for the warn that i can add wireless remote to later on. he has been putting his winch to the test and have several pulls in vs mine. and i support his winch choice as have been tested well and proves reliable. so i suggest either option. rope is nice as i have enjoyed the safety factor and less the extra 10# from the cable. i however went with cable on the warn as cable is more reliable and holds up better with abrasive resistant, i use mine as a tool that sometimes pulls me out. so makes more sense to use cable with wrangling logs and muddy workouts. also cable holds up better to sunlight, uvs or something. so if get rope consider a cover.
alot of info out there on winchs, did alot of research but was all about numbers and etc, i wanted real world applications of tested and proven. warn and smittybuilts are most common among those i wheel with and see firsthand. so id stick to them. other wise anyone will work. just a matter of it working when you need it to. some people can't justify 1k for a winch that gets used maybe once in a year, (but it works when you need it too)
others say 350 is good if pulls you out once. lol either way having a winch is just something everyone should have as an all purpose tool on the shelf.