Dual servos on the mERV (and some velcro)

[CptAwesome]

So this could possibly be the best thing I have ever done. But first, a quick story:


I ordered my 1/16 e-revo a while ago, but by the time I finally got it in, threw away the stock battery, charged up a LiPo and a Tx battery, and started to play with it in my yard, I noticed that the steering servo was making a weird noise and getting stuck, like a gear was stripped. Sure enough, I opened it up and 3 teeth fell out of the casing.

Not knowing if it was something I did, or if it came like that (I only played around with it for 2 minutes. And usually it takes me at least 15 to break something), I emailed Traxxas support, who immediately sent a brand new servo through priority mail, and told me to keep the broken one. At the same time, I ordered a rebuild kit for the broken one. Turns out I didn't need the rebuild kit anyways - I just turned the gear 180 degrees so the broken teeth aren't used. I also ordered another servo horn and linkage.

Now that I had 2 working servos and all the linkages, I installed both into the e-revo (it was nice of traxxas to include 2 servo guards and connections for both steering servos on the Rx), made sure everything was 90 degrees when centered, and HOLY CRAP WHAT A DIFFERENCE.

Ok, so it's not that much of a difference, but I think that the dual servos give a noticeable improvement in steering. I can only assume that the difference is because having two servos means I have twice the torque moving my wheels, which also means I'm less likely to strip one of them. So it kind of seems like a win-win.




While I was at it, I also put velcro on the inside of the body and on the battery trays, as I heard someone else had done on here, and am loving the fact that I don't have to deal with those tiny body clips anymore! It's much easier, and seems strong enough to not come apart even in crashes.

 

[bergoff]

Both are great upgrades on the cheap. I did the velcro on both of mine. I will be doing the dual servos this winter. Its surprising how well the body stays on. Mine has only came off twice after some backflips that didn't go so well.

 

[insaneatvs]

I just bought a used mini and it came with 2 steering servo's, 2 lipo batteries and 2 bodies, for $100....got it home and my wife has claimed as hers....now I'm in the market for another one

 

[frickenjoey]

The velcro trick works great. I just that on my old gold tub AE RC10 back in the day. I never used body clips on it. Always work well for me. Now step up in scale and it does not work so well though.

 

[CptAwesome]

A friend of mine has the full size e-revo, and I think a liberal amount of some high strength velcro would work on his, only because the battery doors come in contact with a large area of the inside of the body. But on something like my Slash... no way. There's maybe a 1/2 inch by 2 inch area, and that's the outer edges of the nerf bars. Looks like I'm stuck with washers and body clips for that one.


And insane, was that brushless or brushed? Either way, that is still a great deal imo. I got the BL, and even though I scored the second servo for free, between the 4 LiPos, the merv, and my member discount with Tower Hobbies, I ended up paying ~$250.