Is there a difference between aircraft servos and surface servos? Can they be used in place of each other?

I believe the biggest difference is usually the length of the servo leads. Airplane versions have longer wires to run through fuselages wings and such, can be messy long in a car.

The only "aircraft specific" servos that I know of are the ones listed as retract, tail rotor, and cyclic servos. Servo wire length is standard...that's why there's extensions. Other than that, most servos can be used in any r/c application as long as it fits where it needs to go.

Does it vary by brand? I thought JR had different lengths? Or maybe I'm just thinking of specific models I've seen:

SV80 Long Lead Servo

I always used Futaba servos when I flew, servo leads were all the same length. Hitech's were the all the same as well.

Specs are specs, the servo doesn't know what you're doing with it.

Some servos are aimed at specific airplane or heli applications, you won't likely want these in a car anyway based on their specs.

servos listed for airplane use usually have longer leads... i have the BLS157 and 156 servos from Futaba and there Leads are longer than those of the 9352 or any other servo they have that says car/ 1/8 scale use with out mention of aircraft.

so yes the Futabas have longer Leads and the JR have longer leads also 8717HV and the 9100HVS have the same spec but the 8717HV have longer leads and the dead band says surface optimize (whatever that means) for the 9100HVS.. these are facts ... i have not used any other brand of servo to talk about..

i know the 8717 says cyclic, but thats because of the speed. The torque version the 8711 has the exact same spec as the 9100HVT except for the deadband of corse.. and the lead is longer

Thanks. My LHS is heavy with Airplanes/Heli's, but not much on surface stuff unless you want Traxxas. The only servo they had close to the torque I wanted was a Spektrum A6030. I bought it, but didn't want to open/install it until I checked. Also, cheap torque. 270+ oz/in for $74.99. Didn't know if i'd beat that online.

Thanks

Have tried using bls 157 in buggy/cars? Planning to get one since the spec is great. But some ppl advice me not to put air servo on cars/buggies.

second season using them in my truggy.. no problem.. lots of torque and always precise

I never owned a JR servo. But the Hitec's, Futaba's, and Hyperion's that iv'e used for on planes and a heli had standard length servo leads. Matter of fact, I haven't ever seen an unusually long servo lead on any servo until the one you just posted.

THIS is cheap torque...Savox SA1230SG 500 oz/in @ 6v. for $74.99

It depends on the servo. Low profile aileron servos are designed to be mounted out in the wings and thus will often have really long leads on them.

Servos are designed for different characteristics depending on intended use. A standard aircraft servo doesn't need to very strong, quick or durable so they tend to be cheap and weak. Use only in light duty applications. Heli servos are usually designed for extreme precision. Servos for nitro car servos are (or at least should be) designed for abuse. They need to be strong (hence metal gears), fast, vibration resistant and high torque. That's why they are usually more expensive than an aircraft servo with similar specs.

LOL...wow!!! I've tried Savox in the past, but it seems like they are power hogs. That is a ton of torque, though.

would need a cap the size of a coffee can to run that sucker..

I have that one steering my wraith. I run a separate life battery just for it. But after getting grilled for not running a castle bec, I have one on the way and i'll see how it is then. What I should do is run the servo on my servo tester with the watt meter attached and cycle it at 95% of rated output (475 oz.) to see what the max amp draw is. I also just bought strictly to test and see, a Solar D772. This one is 368oz @ 6v, 417oz @ 7.4v. Definitely enough torque for the wraith running either voltage however, the Solar was $24.45 shipped!! I'm dying to see how this one turns out.