servo saver

[Turnbull83]

Is it necessary to use a servo saver for crawling. If so, what brand or style do you prefer?

[evan03]

I wouldn't and haven't for about 1.5 years of bashing and crawling.

I just run a heavy duty servo with metal gears and metal arm.

[Johnnysplits]

No servo saver...in anything!!

[Calderwood]

No servo saver, that's what titanium gears are for.

[TacoCrawler]

The original plastic flexible link rod was the servo saver...
But most find that to be a fail out the box.

I don't run a servo saver either.
But a stronger servo will be critical to handling the abuses.
Even at crawling speeds... and with a solid link rod for the steering
I broke 4 plastic steering knuckles and two Chubs.
I never ran into any obstructions... they just let go.

Sooo...

if going with a solid link rod and no servo saver to protect the steering components...
It would be my advice to upgrade the Chubs/Knuckles to alloy units.

Even with a stronger servo and alloy Chubs/Knuckles...
you may still break things if you hammer into immoveable objects.

If you crawl at speeds akin to a crawler
and avoid impacts...
you will be happier

[k7zpj]

Originally Posted by Turnbull83

Is it necessary to use a servo saver for crawling. If so, what brand or style do you prefer?

Here is why servo savers are not generally used on crawlers:

Steering the wheels on a slow speed crawler takes a lot more torque than steering the wheels on a fast moving SCT truck. You can validate this by trying to steer your 1:1 rig at 1 MPH and then at 55MPH.

Servo savers are designed for high speed / low torque applications where you want to protect the servo from sudden high speed impacts of short duration. The spring inside the servo saver compresses when hit with a impact and then releases preventing damage to the servo.

Under low speed / high torque conditions such as crawling, the spring will fully compressed most of the time offering no protection to the servo.

The solution is to use a good quality high torque servo and forget using a servo saver on a crawler.

[axial 4x4 crawler]

Personally I would NOT use a servo saver. They are terrible on crawlers because of the high torque servos they just won't work well. Just get yourself a Hitec HS-7980TH with 611 oz of torque and be done with it. Don't even think about a worthless servo saver, if you were into short course then that's where the servo saver comes in handy..

[Johnnysplits]

I don't run a servo saver on my SCT either.

[meatmonkey]

Servo savers are only needed to protect weak servos.

Real servos don't need savers.

Plus all the generic servo mounted savers are far to soft to provide precise steering effort.

[fyrstormer]

Don't get a servo saver. You won't be driving fast enough to need to protect the servo from a sudden sharp impact. All you need is a high-torque metal-gear servo and a metal servo horn that clamps onto the splines for added strength.

They're really only useful nowadays on high-speed vehicles with exposed wheels, like monster trucks, stadium trucks, buggies, and truggies.

[crawler105]

I don't like servo savers in anything even in the axail yeti I'm looking to get rid of it soon. Seems to hinder more then then help