Too much side to side play in the spool?

[scouthead]

Brand new T-max EW-10000.
There is about a 1/4 inch of movement side to side... seems like a lot to me. My buddy just bought a 10000 pound smittybuilt and it has half of the movement... Should I be worried about this (return the winch) or try to bolt it down and see how it is when the housing pieces are supported?
I think the crossbars may be splaying out the bottom of the housing a little when they are tight...

 

[scouthead]

Oh well I took the tie bars off and checked some things and I don't see any reason why I couldn't just move the motor and gearbox closer to the spool. I think I'll just shave 1/16th or an 1/8th off of the tie bars (I'm building a custom bumper, so I'll adjust the mounting pattern for the foot pads when I drill for them).

The total play turned out to be about 3/16 of an inch, but that's a full 1/8th more than any of the other winches I have looked at in the last couple weeks. (and most of them used the same spool and housings...)