I don't know much about snowplows, but you might want to look into a
front hitch for your Explorer.
That way you could probably swap between the snowplow, a winch or nothing at your will/leisure.
Warn is the name pretty much everybody respects in the world of winches. When it comes to picking out a winch, the general thought is to buy a winch rated for 1.5x for vehicle weight (maybe 2x if you're worried about super gloopy mud). I'd recommend the Warn M8000, as it is a tried and true model that's been around forever as a standard workhorse, or your could try their newer VR series of entry-level winches. If you bought the M8000 and you were doing the front hitch idea, you'd need to purchase a Warn Multimount kit too. However, Warn sells some winches already installed with the Multimount kit (it's basically a metal cradle/mount for your winch that fits into a 2in hitch and some wiring). I'm pretty sure all Warn winches come with a lifetime warranty; I know the M8000 and most of their mid-to-high range products do.
I'd recommend buying your winch on Amazon, unless you know somebody locally, because you'll easily get $400+ off the Warn MSRP.
If you don't want to spend the kind of money required for a Warn, you could look into stuff like Superwinch, Smittybilt (makes various offroad accessories), etc.
I know Superwinch has a pretty good reputation, but I'm not so sure about Smittybilt.
