Dave, I have not seen ARco
electric winches, but I have Arco 40s for
halyard winches and think that they are pretty poor engineering. Main issue is no bearings on the shafts for the intermediate gears... just
bronze gears turning on s/s shafts. I've had serious problems with them despite frequent lubing. My older Barients soldier onwards with needle bearings on all those spots. And for what it's worth, all the other winches that I've owned over the years had such bearings.
Hutton told me that he didn't think those bearings were necessary... I just can't agree.
If I were
buying electric winches today, I'd be looking at Andersons... class of the league, but not
cheap.
Jim