ORIGINAL: marktur
TOWER 75: Yes, it's $70 less, but IMHO it's not a good buy. You will need to add weight to the front of your plane to make it balance, and I truly do not believe it will go any faster at the end of the day, and you've raised your wing loading for no good reason.
Bottom line: you get what you pay for. I've heard a lot of good and bad on the Tower motor.
I would not trust my $1800 investment to a "cheap" motor just to save a few bucks. This is only my opinion, and we're all entitled to one, right?
Mark
And I would have to disagree with this.
The Tower IS a VERY good buy.
I've well over 7 of them under my belt now, and all work flawlessly.
They DO need a bit of experience to set up, so they may not be suitable for novices.
But if you have someone with experience around, or someone who has worked with one of these, they are wonderful.
The biggest problem with these engines are the assumptions which the novice make make... e.g. assuming that they have them properly tuned when they are actually far off.
As far as "trusting" the investment...
I put CHEAP $6.78/ea high torque SG5010 servos on my bobcat's ailerons and a myriad of other planes.
I also put in the more expensive Hitec's for the rudders & elevators on the Bobcat, and Hitecs and other brands on otherplanes...
Guess which have the highest failure rate and DOA record? It's not the less expensive servos!
I even have a couple of the "better" high end Hitec's which test just fine, but put them near a running 2C engine, and they go nuts. ( Maybe they don't like the neighborhood? )
None of the "cheap" SG's have ever done this. ( The JR servos have done a fine job too, btw. )
Likewise the Bobcat is a "cheap" plane, which we are putting our expensive gear into... so putting in the "cheap" Tower may be a better match than an AX.
Meanwhile I've saved the cost of a couple of planes by not throwing O.S. engines into everything I own, much as I DO like them.
I'll often put together planes "on the cheap" so that I can feel better about pushing them hard and not caring if they fall apart. Inevitably I tend to have the most fun with those as I end up flying them more often and much harder.... and they end up lasting far longer than I ever expect.... so you don't always get what you pay for...
... after all the aim of any business is to maximize profits... so the dollars paid may sometimes not reflect reliability or value for the money, merely the product the seller can make the largest margin on. I may also be bypassing a middle man or name brand and be purchasing a better product for the same amount.... but it is always DIFFICULT to tell either way.