What servo is everyone using?

[V6Jim]

Looking to buy a good, cheap servo. Seems to me that most folks use the Savox 1256/57/58. What else is there and can somebody sell me one!

Thanks,

Jimmy

[RogerM]

Never has the old engineering statement of "good - cheap - quick ... pick any two only" been more applicable than it is for RC steering servos!!

You seriously get what you pay for in terms of centering, consistency and of course reliability.

I run Futaba BLS551 in all my cars with a Futaba 9550 as a spare (which I never need, probably telling me I need another car to put it in )

http://www.jemodels.com/nitro-models...facturer_id=35

I still have my old Futaba 9401 from about 1988 in my touring car, as far as I can remember it's never had a gear set fitted, that is reliability and value for money IMHO

Cheap no, highest quality yes but value for money is brilliant, you can spend a lot more but not get any real improvement!

The Power HD servos are also excellent and when I need another servo it might well be one of those.

[metalmickey0]

Personnally i`d steer clear of Savox servos as they are power hungry and every one i had broke. One of them 5 laps into its first race. I have a Hitec in my micro and an Alturn in my 10th.

[johnboy]

Originally Posted by metalmickey0

Personnally i`d steer clear of Savox servos as they are power hungry and every one i had broke. One of them 5 laps into its first race. I have a Hitec in my micro and an Alturn in my 10th.

I've never seen a savox break very strange

[dodgydiy]

check your bec output from your speed control before buying a savox 1256/7/8. there have been instances at club where people have bought one and put it in their car and had problems with their receivers going into failsafe because the speed control bec cant handle the peak current required to run the servo

[Jamesk]

I have had that problem with both my Savox servo's,i now have a power capasitor fitted (less than £10)and this will fix the problem for good. Apart from the issue the savox have proved reliable and strong too.

jK

[sosidge]

Originally Posted by RogerM

Never has the old engineering statement of "good - cheap - quick ... pick any two only" been more applicable than it is for RC steering servos!!

Quite right!

Always Futaba in my cars. BLS451, S9451 and S9550 are the current fleet and have served me well in a variety of cars. The S-series servos are about 5 years old now, I've broken the sacrificial plastic gear in one of them once, so probably worth grabbing a spare first gear for your pitbox if you can.

There have been a lot of faddy servos over the years that promise high speed and low cost, after a little while everyone realises that they weren't up to the job. Savox may perform well but they are power hungry and cause a lot of electrical issues - really not worth the hassle.

[V6Jim]

OK. Thanks for the replies. If you have a moment could you check these out for me:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alturn-USA...ht_1829wt_1164

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alturn-USA...ht_1340wt_1164

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alturn-USA...ht_1218wt_1164

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alturn-USA...ht_1431wt_1164

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alturn-USA...ht_1829wt_1164

If none of these are recommended I'll try some futabas..

Jimmy

[dodgydiy]

or look for a secondhand ko servo, nearly all my electric cars are on ko servo's mainly very old ps1001 and ps713 and even still using ps87's. i do have a couple of futaba, and they have both been fine one is 9401, other is salightly higher spec but cant remember what it is. futaba produce the best standard servo's out of all the makes i have tried.

[V6Jim]

I think this might be more like it!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FUTABA-BLS...#ht_500wt_1414

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2008190942...#ht_500wt_1414

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2907726739...#ht_500wt_1414

Classy servos - secondhand though...

Help!

Jimmy

[sosidge]

Futaba "3" series servos are high torque for 1/8th scale - not the ones to seek out for electric.

BLS451 is a good choice, up to you whether buying from Malta with that high shipping is worthwile - they are only £70-odd quid from UK stock, hardly any more than the Savox, and a much, much better servo.

[Belsten]

Ive broken a Savox but then I am a bit of an animal

Currently I run KO, Hot Bodies, Sanwa & Airtronics

I have also ran futaba and found those to be good too along with all of the above

Some are not cheap though

[tomtom]

After some trials with Orion and Savox I tried a KO2413 and like how it feels so much I only use those for a while, no power issue, no breakage.

Lately I found a used RSX here an bought it to try and it was even better with a perfect centering, quite speedy and powerful.

Bought a RSone new some months ago and, well, it will be hard to come back to anything else.

Not cheap but I expect no issue at all for quite a while and awesome performance race after race.

Guess a good Futaba or Sanwa might offer about the same although KO got my fave. A huge amount of money but think it's worth it.

Lots of very good ones on the used market, I started that way.

[jkclifford]

Have several savox servos all served me well. no problem with any of them. (getting old now too)

set the end point propery to stop big ampage draw and pulling the car to bits.