crashlessons

I'm building a new funfly. Been watching ebay and major retailers for suitable servos on sale.

I found a large price difference between Tower and Servo City on the Futaba s9252 servo. Digital, coreless, dual BB, high torq and speed with plastic gears.

Servo City asks $139 while tower lists them at 80 bucks.

What's up? Is this just not a popular seller so TH is ditching them at a close out price?

Also, a guy on ebay has an auction with 100 of them for $70 "buy it now". No one seems to be interested, he hasn't sold a one yet.

Is there something wrong with this servo?

I thought a pair might work well on the ailerons. Not as fast as the ones I have for the rudder and elevator but..... If this ain't a good choice, let me know.

Maybe this price reduction is the shape of things to come for all servos. There really isn't that much to servos and I've always considered that someone is making a killing on them. Can't really be much more than 20 or 30 dollars worth of parts, labor, packing material, and shipping with modern automated manufacture process.

Thanks

ChuckAuger

My Feedback: (12)

They are fine servos, nothing wrong with them. I run them on ailerons, elevator, and rudder on profiles and think they are great for this application.

When Tower first started selling them, they were $139 ea. Then they went to $109, then $99, now $79. Now I don't know if their price from Futaba has dropped this much, or if they were making a killing at $139. I have my guess. If they weren't a popular seller, it was because they had them priced so high. They are a very popular servo on 60 sized aerobatic Helis...

Can't say about Servo City, my guess is they aren't the importer so they have to sell them for whatever they are told to sell them for.

As for the guy on Ebay.. HeliHut is in Hawaii. They get their servos from Asia and skirt the US import monopoly of Great Planes (or Tower, whoever is behind the "Empire"). They have been selling them off their website for $75 for at least a year, maybe longer. They are the same servo. The only drawback is you have to send the servos back to Asia for waranty service. The "Empire" won't honor the warranty on them as they didn't get their cut off importing them.

You can't tell if he has sold any by looking at his auction unless you are the buyer or seller...I'll bet he has sold some at that price.

I have done business with HeliHut several times and never had a problem.

That said, I have 24 of the 9252, all purchased from HeliHut. I have never had a failure or needed to send one off for repair. I have not run every one of them yet. Truth is, at the difference between $139 and $75 (what they cost from Tower when I first started using them vs what I paid from HeliHut) I could almost have replaced every single servo, maybe 21 out of 24, and still come out ahead.

Now that Tower is starting to become more reasonable in their pricing, buying from them to get warranty coverage might be feasible.

crashlessons

Great Chuck!

That's excellent news. Just what I wanted to hear.

They are for a profile ailerons so it sounds like this is what I want.

I need 2. I'll risk the shipping to asia for the 20 dollars. Not likely I'll have a problem. Futaba equip has been very reliable so far.

I've seen other dutch auctions count down from the original number available so that is why I thought he hadn't sold any yet.

Does helihut have a regular web site? I'd like to see what else if offered before clicking "buy it now."

Thanks for the info.

ChuckAuger

My Feedback: (12)

Yep, sure do. He takes PayPal thru the store also, makes it easy to pay.

http://www.helihut.com/

crashlessons

Thanks!

Lynx

Thats 70 dollars for 100 on e-bay was probably each for 100 quanties => I don't think you wanna spent 7 grand on 100 servos =)

IronZ

My Feedback: (3)

You don't have to buy 100 servos. It means that there are 100 available for purchase. You can buy 1 or 10 or 100 or whatever your little heart desires. Just fyi.

crashlessons

I'll take a hundred lot! I'm building a really big plane.

Let's see now,,,, 80 oz/in times 36 foot wing span....Yea, I think that'll do it!

I'll sit inside and hold on to the radio.

I better start watching ebay for a couple more OS 40's though. Wouldn't want to be under powered.