Servo's

[jamie]

What does everyone run? Any favorite's or models that you have had good reliability with? Just asking to get an idea on what's out there thanks.

[rickwess]

I personally like Hitec. The HS-5646WP is waterproof, digital, metal gear, high torque and relatively inexpensive.

[J Solinger]

I've used mostly futaba but also use hitec and jr. I haven't had any of these fail yet. It seems to be more of a matter of getting one that isn't underpowered.

[Fluid]

It isn't always just about power. Digital servos are an advantage with larger heavier boats. Other club members and I have occasionally had control issues with non-digital servos, since the analogs don't have a strong centering action. This can lead to hooking and poor directional control. In every case, switching to a digital servo of the same strength solved that problem.

BTW a club member who bought a high-end "waterproof" servo had it fail the first time it got wet - go figure. The solution of course is not to have a wet boat, which seems pretty basic.


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[madmikepags]

FUTABA or HiTec for me, Futaba in cars and boats and HiTecs in my planes, I've used thousands and thousands of servos over the years. and have never gotten a bad Futaba or Hitec servo off the shelf. I've had brand new Airtronics servos cost me races and equipment and recently I've used some Savox servos that I like but I've bought about 50 or so savox servos and have gotten 2 bad ones right out of the box,( Thats 4% bad inventory) and If I had to guess i would say I've bought over 2000 futabas over the years and have never gotten a bad one out of the box.

Don't skimp on your servo, the more power (TQ) the better. Speed isn't that importnt in boats but I always go for the fastest and strongest servo I can, that comes from decades af compettitive car racing. If I feel a servo is too fast i slow it down on the transmitter. If you're spending a lot of $$$ on a boat get a good servo don't skimp. And Yes DIGITAL is the way to go especially if you have a digital radio!!!!!

[jamie]

How about where space is limited needing the use of a smaller servo?

[madmikepags]

depends on the size off the boat but there are many small servos availablle from all manufacturers to suit needs.

[properchopper]

How about where space is limited needing the use of a smaller servo?


Savox has a nice selection of minis and micros


I was recently challenged to fit one into a Mini-Sniper for a customer's boat. The mini mount needed to be re-done to get the micro in place

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[jamie]

Interesting thanks :smile:
Its just something that Ive noticed about this hobby that doesn't seem to get much discussion, yet its a pretty important part i would think.

[T.S.Davis]

I used all Hitec for years. I've recently given Savox a shot just due to the torque to dollar ratio. So far so good but I haven't got a lot of laps on any of them yet.

It's all about the torque I think. If you have enough and the servo stays dry you wont have problems.