Army guy, deployed a lot and despite the trickle charger, I can never seem to keep a battery long enough, whats everyone using these days on their 848s and where's the best place online to order them with a decent warranty, thanks a lot!
I think most 'brand' batteries will be okay, but I'm surprised your trickle charger hasn't kept the battery up together. If I were you I would go for a Yuasa or one of the other top brands but avoid Lithium Ion on the 848. Most seem to think it's a bad idea to have a LiPo on the 848 due to the reg rec not being able to handle it.
Yuasa AGM using your subscriber Halfords discount card gives best performance and value. About 43 quid for my 999.
Pretty much anything that will fit, bigger Ah & CCA rating the better. I'd go for AGM battery over Gel as purely from my own experience I've found them to more robust and give a longer life. I ran a LiFe in my 1098 and had no issues but I would not recommend it as they can stress the Reg/Rec and lead to heat problems, in extreme cases fires. Currently like @JH_1986 I'm running a Motobatt in the 1098. The Yuasa the bike was supplied with lasted about 5-6 years, but I normally get longer than that from batteries. If your maintainer isn't doing the business then I'd junk it and get something that works personally I use an old CTEK and it's been good, but other brands are available If the 848 is the same as the 1098 there will be a parasitic drain from the immobilizer and I just put it onto the charger about once every 2 or 3 weeks to bring it back up. I could be wrong here but I don't think leaving a battery constantly on a maintainer is really a good idea, in theory yes, but in practice no If you are on long term deployment and away for months on end the best plan is to remove the battery from the bike (or totally disconnect it) fully charge it and tape up the terminals but I don't know if that's feasible for you or not John
I don't know what your rotation is OCTAVE but I am away for 2-3 months then back for 2 weeks. I have my bike on the Ducati branded trickle charger and my battery is a unibat and it has been fine.
