Nice clean setup. I plan on getting a winch from Harbor Freight after hearing your endorsement for them. I kinda look at it like this... I have had a set of Porter Cable cordless tools...drill, impact, circular saw, etc for YEARS! They have never let me down and seem to perform just as well as my brother's high-dollar Dewalt stuff. I remember standing at Lowes years ago and thinking... Man, for the difference in price, I will give them a shot.
not sure about a badlands winch, but warn and others say it voids warranty to spool the winch backwards as your recommending. something about the way the planetary gears are laid out in the gearbox i would assume.
If I would have had a chunk of steel I probably could have made it pretty easily. That plow went as a package to my dad. I'll get a new one at some point.
BTW, have ya changed out your headlights for LEDs yet? I got a set of Spike for mine and they're amazing. Also heard Beamtechs are really good. Amazon has lots of choices.