How necessary are servo trays? I've had some people tell me not to worry about getting them, and others say that my servos will not last without them because of the vibration. So what's the deal? I've seen a lot of planes with the servos mounted without trays, but don't know if that's advisable or not. Thanks.

not sure what you mean...

if your plane doesn't have a servo tray...then just use a few pieces of hardwood and built a place to mount them

If you are referring to the plastic trays that come with some radios for you to mount your servos in, then no you do not need them. I've been flying for almost 10 years and I've never used a plastic servo tray. In fact, most planes will have wooden mount for mounting your servos in.

Ken

Hardwood rails work just as nicely, and are much more flexible than "trays".

I like to cut my own servo trays out of plywood. The rubber gromets on the servos should offer some vibration isolation. The brass eyelets should flair out at the BOTTOM so the mounting screws won't compress the gromet too much.

I've used hardwood in most planes but sometimes the trays do come in handy, You can get them for $.25 for the complete tray from here.
http://www.servocity.com/html/servo_mounts.html

Dauntae

If an installation would be conducive for using a servo tray, I would use one. However, many designs now install the rudder and elevator servos in the tail and aileron servos in the wing, so there is only the throttle servo to mount forward. We are left with few times that trays are useful, anymore. With the use of the metal eylet and large rubber grommets, mounting in a tray, or alone to hardwood or plywood is the same and fine.