Steering servo options

[RCKELLEY]

Looking to upgrade my Trailwalker steering servo. Looking at a REEFS 422HDV2. I don't want to mess with a BEC. Just pug servo into my receiver. Can someone confirm that the REEFS 422HDV2 is just plug into receiver.

 

[RCKELLEY]

Now I see REEFS has a RAW 500 servo...hmmmmmm

 

[diezel666]

Now this is just me personally, as I've had really bad experience with Reefs. ie: a 66% failure raw of the Raw 800LP Brass servos. My buddy has an even higher failure rate of them.

Needless to say, we've both moved over to NSDRC. For $10 more, the RS1 is a way better servo.

NSDRC RS1 Monster Torque Servo

The RS1 was built specifically to be the strongest BEC powered servo on the market! Yes, stronger than the Futaba A700! Check out our servo testing videos and you can see the RS1 put out nearly 1400oz of torque at 8.4!! Not only is the RS1 more powerful, but its faster, more efficient, has a...

dluxfab.com

 

[Col_Sanders]

If you're willing to spend $100+ on a servo, I would not bother with the 422. Not enough torque. The Raw 500 is a little high on price for the specs as well.

Any high performance servo is going to perform best with a BEC unless you go direct power. The Hobbywing 1080 you mentioned in your other thread only has a 6 amp output, as does the Fusion Pro. 6A is not really enough for a good servo.

Now this is just me personally, as I've had really bad experience with Reefs. ie: a 66% failure raw of the Raw 800LP Brass servos. My buddy has an even higher failure rate of them.

Needless to say, we've both moved over to NSDRC. For $10 more, the RS1 is a way better servo.

NSDRC RS1 Monster Torque Servo

The RS1 was built specifically to be the strongest BEC powered servo on the market! Yes, stronger than the Futaba A700! Check out our servo testing videos and you can see the RS1 put out nearly 1400oz of torque at 8.4!! Not only is the RS1 more powerful, but its faster, more efficient, has a...

dluxfab.com

That is how my experience with NSDRC has been. Two out of the three steering servos I used (RS700V2s) burned up on me. Also had the output on one of the micro winches bend after an unfortunate radio programming incident. The Reef's winches I use have been great for me but I have not used any steering servos from them.

 

[diezel666]

The two that I had fail, had less than 10 minutes of run time on them. Were never limited out and "stuck". The first one I sent in, they blamed on a surge that fried it. They recommend I do something about that, and I did. The second failed even after implementing their recommend fix, in about 8 minutes out of the box, with light crawling in my backyard on flat dirt and dead grass.

 

[89Industries]

I have had similar failure rate with NSDRC RS700v1 except instead of the electronics frying I have had repeated gear failures with no support from the manufacturer. Also, the RS700 and many of the NSDRC are direct power servos.

Honestly, for receiver powered servos I have had the best luck with the Amazon, etc cheapo DS3235PRO. Never had one fail. Not the fastest or quietest but pretty strong and cheap enough to buy 2 so you have a spare just in case.

If you're willing to do direct power then I like the Holmes Hobbies servos. The older version of the shv650 that is no longer available is my favorite. The new version that was released a few months ago is better but also about $40 more. Honestly they are pretty easy to add the connector into the ESC battery leads or you can get an adapter plug that has the leads already installed so you can just plug the adapter inline between battery and ESC.

Direct power servos are noticeably stronger in my admittedly limited experience.

 

[cul8tr]

Pass on REEFS. It lasted 2 outings of trail running.
I usually run Savox servos but I have gotten a few from Damazon. Sincecam I believe is the brand. Holding up so far.
Reefs 422 434oz at 8.4v $104 Amazon
Savox 1230 499oz at 6v $88 Amazon I open the case a lil dip it in Corrosion X let it drip dry to waterproof.

 

[AnimalHippie]

Don’t know if he has any in stock but I stand behind Holmes Hobbies servos. You would have to go direct power tho.

 

[hnoroian]

Don’t know if he has any in stock but I stand behind Holmes Hobbies servos. You would have to go direct power tho.

For my nicer builds or on my workhorses, I would 2x this and go directly through their website. Doing direct power is nothing more than adding a pigtail to the ESC side of the connector.

As for the play/loaner side the red 25kg (a bit better than stock) and Blue 35kg (replacements for the 25kg after lots of abuse) off Amazon have served me well. You can usually find them for $20 or so each when bought in multiples and are plug and play at 6v. Assuming you still have the original sc400x.

 

[high plains drifter]

Holmes Hobbies shv500v2 in all my rigs except in one I have a 3Bros G13... all direct power and no failures or glitches. The SHV500v2 is unfortunately discontinued but HH is a solid US company that generally stands behind their products which is a huge plus if you're spending over $100 on a servo.

 

[RCKELLEY]

HH only sells the SHV650LP 700oz@12.6v/800oz@14.4v/900oz@16.8v cost $169.99.

Seems a few do not like REEFS servos. REEFS has their own BEC for $50.00 and still need get a connector. I am thinking for trail running 400oz is plenty good diffidently more than stock servo.

 

[89Industries]

It's kind of a shame that Holmes isn't making the older 500 or 650 but they weren't happy with them so they are making better stuff which unfortunately raises the price sometimes.

The Amazon ds3235pro has 430 oz-in at 5v. So at 6v a bit more which likely is actually around 400 in real life.

I get supporting smaller rc companies like Reefs as well and like to when I can but I also have limited funds. So like others when making a workhorse truck I will spend the extra cash on something like the new Holmes 650. If I need a reliable servo to get a truck going the da3235pro is the choice.

Is the Trailwalker independent front sus? I have a trail truck with the newer element IFS2 and it seems like it needs a stronger servo than a solid axle set up. More friction in all the joints and pivots. But I have no experience with the first Gen stuff.

Also, if you have the same OE servo that my element trucks came with, almost anything will be a noticable upgrade.

 

[diezel666]

I get supporting smaller rc companies like Reefs as well and like to when I can but I also have limited funds. So like others when making a workhorse truck I will spend the extra cash on something like the new Holmes 650. If I need a reliable servo to get a truck going the da3235pro is the choice.

The issue is, you're not supporting much. Reefs barely stands behind their products, which are made to order Chinese models that they mark up, and in fairness so are NSDRC's. That said, I've had way better luck with NSDRC's servos and their support.

I get it tho. Us crawlers are rough on equipment, and they probably get lied to constantly as to how their units fail. Mine shouldn't have failed while wheeling around my back yard. Hell my Savox servo that was 1/4 the cost it replaced, did that level of duty for 8 years till I pulled it out to upgrade..

 

[89Industries]

The issue is, you're not supporting much. Reefs barely stands behind their products, which are made to order Chinese models that they mark up, and in fairness so are NSDRC's. That said, I've had way better luck with NSDRC's servos and their support.

I get it tho. Us crawlers are rough on equipment, and they probably get lied to constantly as to how their units fail. Mine shouldn't have failed while wheeling around my back yard. Hell my Savox servo that was 1/4 the cost it replaced, did that level of duty for 8 years till I pulled it out to upgrade..

Yep, I get that. I don't have any reefs products so no experience there.

I think you got better support with NSDRC because you had electronic failures which are generally mysterious issues and they're supposed to be pretty waterproof. The one try at warranty I had with them, my truck rolled sideways off a 2 foot ledge, landed on it's wheels and the steering was locked. They pretty much said they didn't warranty the gears at all. So I ordered replacement gears and had the same gear shear off teeth and lock up again. And again. So I have 3 sets of gears all missing the same gear. But they said they had no problems with a production run of gears yet changed to the v2 soon thereafter.

I was the engineer and warranty guy at a bicycle company so I got the "just riding along" story a lot. So I make sure to be upfront and honest when I ask about warranty, because if I got the JRA warranty claim I could usually tell if they were lying. The guy who straight up told me he did something kind of stupid usually got replacement parts or frame, especially if was a particularly cool something stupid.

 

[Col_Sanders]

The issue is, you're not supporting much. Reefs barely stands behind their products, which are made to order Chinese models that they mark up, and in fairness so are NSDRC's. That said, I've had way better luck with NSDRC's servos and their support.

I get it tho. Us crawlers are rough on equipment, and they probably get lied to constantly as to how their units fail. Mine shouldn't have failed while wheeling around my back yard. Hell my Savox servo that was 1/4 the cost it replaced, did that level of duty for 8 years till I pulled it out to upgrade..

NSDRC's support has been great to me. Both of mine that died were replaced pretty quick and he didnt give me a hard time. Myself and one of my friends have had one of the new Holmes servos fry on us. Mine died on the bench. Think it had two comps on it, which is less than 30 minutes runtime.

I have friends that run Shift servos and they're happy with them. I have a Shift winch and steering servo but no real use on either so I can not really give an opinion. As far as receiver powered servos go, I trust the Savox 2290s. I have used them pretty heavily in the past and never had a problem with them. Still have two, but the trucks they are on do not get much drive time anymore.

 

[89Industries]

NSDRC's support has been great to me. Both of mine that died were replaced pretty quick and he didnt give me a hard time. Myself and one of my friends have had one of the new Holmes servos fry on us. Mine died on the bench. Think it had two comps on it, which is less than 30 minutes runtime.

I have friends that run Shift servos and they're happy with them. I have a Shift winch and steering servo but no real use on either so I can not really give an opinion. As far as receiver powered servos go, I trust the Savox 2290s. I have used them pretty heavily in the past and never had a problem with them. Still have two, but the trucks they are on do not get much drive time anymore.

Bummer on the new Holmes Servos. I have not had any issues with mine but have not run it extensively yet. I do probably have 6-7 hours on it though. Hopefully its just an initial production bug that gets resolved quickly.

 

[AnimalHippie]

I have the SHV500v2 only thing I don’t like is that it’s noisy like a Savox. I was so disappointed when I got it because of that. Mine has taken some abuse and keeps on going I expect a lot from my rigs. You will find all of the weak points in your steering once you get a good strong servo mine tries to remove the panhard mount from the axle

 

[high plains drifter]

I have the SHV500v2 only thing I don’t like is that it’s noisy like a Savox. I was so disappointed when I got it because of that. Mine has taken some abuse and keeps on going I expect a lot from my rigs. You will find all of the weak points in your steering once you get a good strong servo mine tries to remove the panhard mount from the axle

That's surprising. All three of mine are as quiet as can be. Another guy that I used to run with a lot had a Savox ( don't recall which one) and it was definitely noisy.

 

[diezel666]

I love Savox servos. They've honestly been the best I've ever owned outside of Futaba ones (but good lord the prices on those now).

And everyone will always say "OMG the noise!" when you even mention Savox.

 

[cul8tr]

I've heard worse servos but I'll take the Savox. NSDRC servo in a truck I picked up. I like it and it's been doing great.