FREAKAH

I'm currently shopping for a steering servo for 1/8 buggy.

What's the minimum torque requirement for one of these and what is fast enough?


Interested in these right now:

Hitec HS 5925 & 5945
KO Propo 2344, 2343, 2174, 2173
Futaba 9350, 9451

Are these good choices for 1/8 buggy competition?

corradopsi

i belive the general rule of thumb is 120+ OZ-inches. and as fast as you can afford. i have a hitech 645mg in mine and it does the job quite well with about 133oz and .2sec since the 645 has a bad rep for early death, ill be replacing it with a digital hitech when the time comes. for what i do(bash and club race), i just cant justify a $100 servo.

rmargiotta

iTrader: (59)

If you want a digital servo, the KO 2344 (rated at 180 oz/in at .13s @ 6v)or an Airtronics 94359Z is great choice because it is rated at 200 oz/in with .10s transit time @ 6v but nearly at the same price as the KO. I personally have two of those 359Zs on the way for my car, with the heatsink and the new KO digital servos with the heatsinks not available unless youre ralph burch or something, they are the best bang for your buck.

And corradopsi, I used to think the same thing about spening $100 on a servo and I always used to run hitec stuff because I'd save money, then I started running KO servos in all my cars, and a hitec product won't touch my cars again (nothing against their product). When you're hitec servo goes out, put the money down and get an Airtronics or KO, Futaba also makes a REAL NICE servo. Also, run your 645mg, then put in a $100 digital with over 150oz/in then put you 645mg back in drive it again, and see which one you'll stick with.

Scott Fisher

iTrader: (28)

everything the previous poster said is solid, except while there is nothing at all wrong with the airtronics 359 servo, be aware that it is not a digital servo. It is analog. While I am a big supporter of airtronics, I would reccomend a digital servo on steering in an offroad vehicle. The extra holding power can be beneficial. I personally use the JR 8550, but there are many suitable choices out there.

serpentsixty9

personally i like analogs for steering on 1/8 offroad buggies, i only use digitals on my 1/8 onroads, because they're digital, they center better, which is imperitive for onroad. Nothin wrong with a good analog, i like the airtronics 358, imo, the best servo ever made, fast, 200oz at .10 i believe.

KINGZJ

iTrader: (4)

I have tried most servo's in 1/8 offroad. The best I have found have been the Futaba 9350. Most of the serious racers in my area use the 9350 on at least steering. I use it on both and my new xray just got 2 new ones. I own a total of 8 of them between my trucks and buggys and have used them for the past year witout a single failure. U burn allot of fuel and have really put them to the test. Everyone has their favorite and the 9350 is mine.

For the record most receivers only will put 5volts out to the servos if you plug the battery into the battery slot. I use Jr radio and receiver and they must have a diode in the receiver that will not let you do the trick of plugging the battery into the 3rd channel and pluging your personal transponder into the battery slot so I am stuck with 5volts unless I run a splitter.

corradopsi

ive never heard of that before. i run a tekin receiver on my race truck and it has no BEC on it so i have to run a splitter. but on my other 2 cars that have futaba receivers ill try moving the batt to the 3rd channel and see if it helps. thanks for the tip.

PTP Racing

iTrader: (2)

so far 2 gallons through on my new 9350 servos and i love em

i bought them based on kingzj's advice and since purchasing them ive found that many other top drivers use them also

rmargiotta

iTrader: (59)

As far as wiring goes, I know its a pain in the butt, but im anal when it comes to this stuff, solder youre PT inline with your switch, so its always on when the cars on and theres no doubt about it. It clears up a lot of wires in your receiver box and in my opinion its a little more dependable, and thats what you need when youre running those 30-40 minute mains.

And good call about the airtronics servo, i wans't clear on the analog/digitalness of the servo (i know there is no such word as the one I just typed it was a joke).

-Rocco

corradopsi

actually i run the power to the switch->splitter->transponder/radio system. i dont belive the track i run at supports personal transponders, they use some other type of system. absolutely nobody there runs them and many are more serious than i am.

windellmc

iTrader: (4)

The new JR RS310 receiver does allow 6v to go to the servos as it has no BEC. I think JR is the only company that limits servo voltage to 5v though. The nice thing about that is you won't cook any servos.

I think if you want durability in a 1/8 buggy you need to stick with Airtronics 357/358/359/360, Futaba s9350, or the Ko stuff. I like my Ko servos but I know if they need service I will pay through the nose. Airtronics is probably the best in that regard because they will replace servo motors for about $20. I'm not sure what Futaba charges but they do have a 1 year warranty the last time I checked.

The only thing that worries me about the 9350 is where do you get the plastic safety gear without buying the whole gear set? Ko and Airtronics sell that gear separately for a couple of bucks for their servos.

Doughty

I always thought the oposite.

Digi servo's don't centre very well, they have to go past centre to know they have gone too far and then they come back

Thats the reason that I heard a lot of top racers don't run them

I might be wrong though

PTP Racing

iTrader: (2)

nope digitals center much better the little microprocessor inside them that makes decisions like when center is achieved is i think 6 times faster than an analog servo so the pulses are sent to the motor faster and more precisely

i think pro's who dont use them mainly stay away because of the fact digital servos seem to have a higher failure rate than regular analog servos

i was told the extra heat caused by all those super fast movements causes the servos to fail at a much higher rate

thats why i was sold on the futaba 9350 servos i knew my old futaba servos were good the 9451 but these 9350 servos had a aluminum case and more torque

hopefully i will be using them for a long time to come

by the way anyone know futaba's information of where to send stuff in for service i got a couple of beat up old 9451's that need some lovin and a pcm reciever that needs a new antenna

KINGZJ

iTrader: (4)

You can get the plastic gear from great plains service center

windellmc

iTrader: (4)

Is that gear expensive?

BTW the 9350 is digital so there are digitals out there that can take a pounding.