what part do you guys skimp on?

[mrfourtysevenman]

i know its fun to buy all name brand but being only seventeen, its not easy supporting a hobby when you've milked all the money from your parents
the last thing i like to skimp on is the tail servo. the first thing i would skimp on is the
battery
cyclic servos
then the ESC
then the motor
and somewhere in that list should be the entire heli itself.
i have had really great results with the tarot gyro, hextronik servos, a spektrum in the tail and turnigy motors work great with a turnigy ESC but my hobbyking esc overheated and actually when my heli took a dive (in water) all the HK parts survived except for the esc

[Bob O]

I sort of went all out on my current heli.

[nightflyr]

If the choice had to be made.. a lower grade battery is the only compromise..

Cheap (Low Quality) components in the mechanics will surely lead to a failure and crash

[dannylightning]

i try not to skimp on any thing, what ever i buy is top of the line or pretty damn good. batterys are the one think where ill buy the cheep ones.

[electronjunkie]

I have never had a piece of clone electronics fail during flight. They are occassionally bad out of the box. I use 3$ clone servos on my 450 and an $8 servo on the tail. The heli itself is an EXI clone. Would it hold up to hard smacktalk 3D? Probably not but I just put a HK motor on there so we should see some performance boost.

I wouldn't put clone stuff on a larger heli though, but I may one day if times get tight again

That said my Exceed RC ESC will probably give out tomorrow.

[NCcraig]

How's that heli repair/setup business coming along?

[mrfourtysevenman]

great actually but i dont charge except for parts

[HammerHead]

The only thing I would skimp on is the fancy painted canopy.

[mattsergo60]

I try my best not to skimp. Like I tell the guys at the field, if you wanna use $3.00 servos in your 450, it will fly like a heli with $3.00 servos ( centering being the biggest issue) What I like to do is scour the internet for deals/bargains. I use 8417 servos in some of my helis over the 8717's, cause I just bought 4 new ones for $119.00! That or I buy complete helis and part them out.That way I can get some of my money back,if not all of it.

[Rªzª]

never skimp

[lucien]

For me it's easier to list what I don't skimp on. That'd be:
- transmitter and RX (Futaba only, buy the best I can afford)
- engine (I'm an OS guy, will only use the OS 105 from now on hah!)
- assembly and setup (gnat's a-- only, everything else is a mistake).
- starter
- RX batt.
- FBL unit, if applicable (Mikado Vbar only)
Everything else is fair game for cheaping out on, servos, blades and the kit itself.

LS

[electronjunkie]

Originally Posted by mattsergo60

I try my best not to skimp. Like I tell the guys at the field, if you wanna use $3.00 servos in your 450, it will fly like a heli with $3.00 servos ( centering being the biggest issue) What I like to do is scour the internet for deals/bargains. I use 8417 servos in some of my helis over the 8717's, cause I just bought 4 new ones for $119.00! That or I buy complete helis and part them out.That way I can get some of my money back,if not all of it.

My servos center just as fine as the digital cyclic Futaba servos do on my 500. There is a bunch of FUD out there about cheap servos and some models do suck. But all of them do not suck. I know from experience that these $3 servos work great, and have 1.6Kg-cm of torque. I am thoroughly impressed with them.

That said I have to change them out with digitals so I can make it FBL using a Tarot head and Align 3GX.

[rdlohr]

Here is a good resource:

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=114833

Rick

[rstekeur]

You could always try and milk the parents for some more or there's the more traditional approach, a part time job.

[aclysma]

Canopies, batteries, chargers, motor. Would not skimp on servos or gyros. I would not want to skimp on ESC but for smaller helis I think you can get away with it, especially if you have an external bec. Main thing to me is that if it fails in a way that can't be solved with an auto, I am extra paranoid about it failing. If a motor locks up in flight or charger stops working, it's probably not going to endanger anyone. If a servo goes nuts... It's hard to know where it's going.

[Punkin71]

I try to stay with mid grade lipos such as Zippys or Turnigy, you'll never catch me paying for thunder power lipos Servos? you can get by on the ones that dont cost out the ying and I always look out for the best deals on fuel. Come to think of it the only parts on my helis that is considered absolute top of the line are main blades. Radix and Edge.

[electronjunkie]

Originally Posted by rdlohr

Here is a good resource:

https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=114833

Rick

+1

[Dylan Hudock]

LOL! That actually does work! I just milked all the money for replacement parts and a new Tx/Rx off them after a crash (im 16)!

[Dylan Hudock]

Originally Posted by rstekeur

You could always try and milk the parents for some more or there's the more traditional approach, a part time job.

+1 for the milking!

[Elgyn]

learned the hard way not to skimp.