Review of tower pro mg958 servo for everest 10

[Smokin' Joe]

I decided to upgrade the servo of my Everest 10. I've added a fair amount of weight over my front axle (extra 6.5 oz per wheel, a pot metal axle housing, front placement of electronics), increased my steering travel through grinding of my steering knuckles and axle stubs, and added sticky tires. With these changes my stock servo was struggling. The stock servo is rated at 9 kg-cm and was unable to turn my tires lock to lock at a standstill on a high traction surface. It also buzzed quite a bit when turning to full extension and continued to buzz after recentering until I moved the truck forward/backward.

For my upgrade, I didn't want to spend a lot as I'm fairly budget focused for this build. This somewhat precluded the very high torque servos as they both cost more and would require an external bec (castle creations 10 amp plus castle link plus receiver bypass adapter would be $48 plus shipping even before the cost of the servo). I decided to try the tower pro mg958. It is rated at 18 kg-cm at 4.8 volts (20 kg-cm at 6.6 volts). It ran me $12 shipped.

First impressions...it moves my wheels with far greater speed and authority than the stock servo. It also doesn't have the buzzing issue of my stock servo. It still is not strong enough to move my tires lock to lock at a standstill on a high traction surface though it does better than the stock servo. Bottom line is it is a decent upgrade over the stock servo for the cost, though not quite as beefy as I hoped it would be. I'll update this post later if I run into any durability or other issues with it.

[cabron]

how many teeth in the spline?

[Smokin' Joe]

25T spline

[cabron]

where did you find it for 12 bucks shipped?
bang good?

[Smokin' Joe]

Yes, from their u.s. warehouse

[cabron]

thanks

I have used the 946 for a number of years but this looks to be better and faster for about the same money

consider the nobrainer bec from heyok. it is 30 bucks but you set the voltage yourself with a voltmeter and a small screwdriver.
No Brainer BEC

[Smokin' Joe]

Yeah, I saw that...looks pretty good, but it doesn't have the connector I use, so I hadn't looked into it much. I figured if I was going to have to do some soldering I may as well do with the cc Bec if I got one.

[TheLetterJ]

My stock front hexfly 15kg servo finally gave up the ghost on Saturday, no complaints since I've been running Swamper XL's and wheel wideners for 6 months almost daily. I ordered 2 of the mg958's yesterday, if they are true to their 18kg/20kg advertised spec, they'll be a decent upgrade. Hopefully I'll have a better experience with "banggood" than I have had with other Asian vendors recently.

[TheLetterJ]

I got my servos a couple days ago (took right at 2 weeks... don't waste your money on the expedited shipping!) I got the front mounted up on my RS10 and left the stock Hexfly 15kg on the rear for a quick test. When in crab steer, the mg958 turns much quicker than the hexfly and with significantly greater force. I was able to turn the front at a stand still in grass (2.2XL swampers + wheel wideners) and it was able to turn in a few spots on my rock pile that the steering would have stalled before (obviously the mg958 can still stall, just not as easily.)

After that short test I decided to go ahead and put the other mg958 on the rear too. I haven't got the radio dialed in perfectly yet, but overall I'm very happy with the towerpro's and would absolutely buy them again. In fact, I just bought some towerpro mg90's for my boys' Dromidas and they too were a nice improvement for very little money.



A couple mm's taller than the hexfly it replaced, but it does have more meat on the mounting flange:



I've got a couple more photos I'll post when Photobucket decides to cooperate.

Thanks for the heads up Smokin' Joe!

[Smokin' Joe]

NP, I thought this might be a good place for the review as many on this forum are budget minded in their upgrades.

[sandyx]

Originally Posted by sandyx

Front BTA steering complete.

I've been using these 10$ 958 servos from sometime. Ofcourse not as much extensive as you guys but still aggressive enough & they never disappoint. It's a Taiwan band which is supposed to have much better QC.