RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

What is everyone using for steering servos?

I've been getting Futabab S3305's for my recent builds because I recognize the name from when I raced in the early 90's so I presume they're a quality item (rightly or not). I have HiTec 635MG's in my older cars when I shopped a local hobby shop, but find them oddly noisy when even just sitting idle. So, recently, I have been wondering if I should consider something different. I see there are a LOT of options these days. I don't think I need to spend $230 per servo for my occasional runners, and maybe what I have is good enough for what I do, but I wanted to get an idea of what was popular these days.

I just got this Hitec HS-5565MH servo for my son's buggy and I run a protek 160TBL "Black Label" Low Profile in my eb410.2

In my running cars/trucks right now are the

• Reedy RT1508 I bought this used off eBay for $60
• Savox-sc1258tg I bought this brand new from Amain hobbies for $70.
• Futaba s3001 Came with a truck I got off eBay.

The Savox and Reedy servo are basically indistinguishable running at 6 volts. Fast, strong and responsive. The Reedy is silent. The Savox is noisy at rest it always sounds like it trying to move just a bit. I like them both a lot. I have been running them for a while.

The old Futaba servo is fine. It's old, it's slow and it's just fine. I don't need to replace it. I would upgrade it just because I want to have a better looking part.


Dishonerable Mention
I am no longer running a hobby king servo as it broke.
Turnigy 1258tg digital titanium gear servo This is the generic clone of the Savox servo. I did get some years out of it but it absolutely pales in comparison to the Savox servo

Savox sc-1258tg is my go to servo for most applications these days. I needed a low profile servo for one of my cars and went with a Savox sc-1252mg.

I run the same Savox on any of my cars that will be run regularly. If it is going to sit on the shelf most of its life, it will probably get a Fut S148.

I would have to be a paid racer before I would think about a $200+ steering servo.

morrisey0 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:59 pm I run the same Savox on any of my cars that will be run regularly. If it is going to sit on the shelf most of its life, it will probably get a Fut S148.

I would have to be a paid racer before I would think about a $200+ steering servo.

Looking at modern setup sheets not even all of the professional racers are using $200 servos.

I run usually shorty servos when I can. It's hard to justify servos over 50 bucks for me, but I do have some.

I have mixed results with the trackstar ts-d99x. it's fast and cheap. but my failure rate is like 40%. when they work, they work well. when they don't they severely glitch your system. I beleive it's totally related to the current capability of your BEC. if you have a rock star BEC, they probably work great.

I tend to buy used savox servos, 1252MG, 0r 1251MG when I see them pop up. they are noisy but have great performance.

I have a high speed airtronics servo in one car, but for the life of me can't recall the part number. it's an older model.

I have a futaba s9551 I also bought used that i have not tried yet.

I have a somewhat slower hitect 645MHG servo in one of my cars and it seems to work pretty well and the car feels less twitchy than some of the faster servos.

Unless you are racing or have some high load application, the 3305 is probably fine. Unless they are letting you down in some way, I'd keep using them.

Roughly half of my cars have Futaba analogs in them. The rest are various other brands, mostly analog.

Usually Savox 1258tg and 1251 low profile servos in buggies, especially for racing.
I used to use cheaper Trackstar TS-920 servos, good torque and speed. Pretty reliable most of the time but they would occasionally glitch.
For a budget servo I usually use Blue Bird BMS-621DMG servos. Proved pretty good for bashers.

The Futaba 3305 isn't the best choice for steering though, it's painfully slow compared to even basic servos as it is designed for lots of torque. It's about half the speed of all the servos named above and a faster servo will make your steering much more responsive.

When it comes to servos, I generally buy cheap second-hand units off racers, or cheap new units off eBay (when the price is right i.e. low). My other source of servos these days is buying second-hand cars, and sometimes getting lucky .

I was doing a comparison of some of my 'better' servos the other day, on ServoDatabase.com (a brilliant site). This is the list of servos I have either installed or about to go into various projects: https://servodatabase.com/compare?servos=85,505,529,552,555,842,891,900,1161,1619,2175. I just got three of the JRs and the XQ-Power in a lot for a nice price, and it turns out they're pretty much head and shoulders above the majority of my other good servos

And yes, I do have bucketloads of junky servos.... Futaba S148s, JR NES-501s and 505s, and Sanwa SRM-102s.... so many Sanwa 102s . Might be time to clear out the dross, methinks...

Alex

I’ve got hand me down racing servos in my vintage runners. Some KO RSX that were stupid money new.

Second hand when guys upgrade is a good way to go.

Also have some Ruddog plastic case servos and a couple of protek (amain brand)

The former are mostly black so look best!

If going with Savox, apparently there's a big difference between SC-1257 and SH-1257 servos.
.