i hate to go against the grain here but if you can't afford a warn and just want something for emergency use, get that $300 harbor freight 8000 lb.'er or a come-a-long. keep in mind that once you have a winch, you will use it on more rigs than your own if you choose to. most 'wheelers are more than willing to assist in a recovery. my buddy went though 2 cables on his warn in a tj winching on trucks that got stuck while rarely using it for his own needs. it's very hard to turn down a request for help when someone gets in trouble no matter how stupid they are. a quality winch will meet your winching needs while helping others for years. a cheap winch will get YOU by for a while.

you will not get as many pulls out of a cheap winch as you will with a quality winch. it's just anything else. you get what you pay for. i've 'wheeled for 15 years and have never really "needed" a winch for a recovery. i've managed to get by with shovels, straps, come-a-longs, hi-lifts, pushing, pulling, etc. while a winch would've been convenient in many situations i've never walked out or had to get help outside of my non winch equipped group to to get unstuck.

my cj-7 came equipped with a warn 8274 when i bought it 12 years ago. the motor was rusted out inside and didn't work so i took it off. it wasn't until i moved to AZ and started rock crawling that i figured it was a necessary piece of equipment to make some of the waterfalls that are impassable without winching. i rebuilt it and it works great. the point is, i really didn't "need" it in the dirt, mud, snow, sand, or mountain trails. there are trails where a winch is necessary to complete the trail. if those are the trails you run, my advice is to buy warn. if you've never really needed a winch and just want one for convenience during recoveries, get a cheap one and see how long it lasts. i have a chinese angle grinder that has made it through 5 times as many disks as i thought it would when i bought it for $15 and it just keeps going. you can roll the dice for $300, or be confindent for $1000. it's up to you and your needs for a winch.

:edit: if it's just for looks on a mall crawler, get a cheap chinese job and put a warn cover on it.