Traeger Tailgater Issues

[UncleSpike]

Good Day,

A couple of years ago I accidentally bought a Traeger Tailgater on an online auction. I paid $280.00 for it and it was brand new, so I got a good deal.

I have come to hate it.

I just can't trust it. Any time I need to do a longer cook, it will be fine for a few hours, and then it just decides to fill up the burn pot with pellets and it shuts down. For some reason it stops burning them... I've had this happen many times, and I don't know what to do to fix it.

Also, it needs to be set to a minimum of 225, or the same thing happens. If I try run it at 180, or even just on the smoke setting, it does the same thing. It just shuts down..

Any suggestions?

[kenrobin]

Your experience is similar to what I went through. I wish I could offer advice but ultimately, I couldn't get rid of mine fast enough.

[Spinaker]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

The one of the few things I can think of is keeping your fire pot clean. I always vacuumed mine out when I had a pellet rig for a short while.

The only other thing would be to make sure your pellets are dry and clean. One of the more annoying parts of pellets is their ability to suck up moisture and become problematic. It causes them to swell, bridge in the hopper and/or burn poorly.

My guess is that you have checked all these boxes, but I wanted to see if I could help in case you did not consider these things.

[UncleSpike]

Yeah, I've done it all...

[Spinaker]

Well, now you can do what I did and get rid of it. 🤷🏼♂️😊 UncleSpike

[bbqLuv]

Funny, they weren't designed to have that problem.

[WillTravelForFood]

just run it at 225 or 250 if those temps tend to prevent issues. Avoid using it at temps you know will be problematic.

Didn't say these were good suggestions.

[lostclusters]

Sounds like an ingiter issue to me.

[glitchy]

Ignitors only initially light the fire. After the grill is running, their work is done. Only a few grills have a relight feature where they’ll detect a flameout and relight the fire.

[glitchy]

There are lots of pellet grills that struggle to keep a fire burning at less than 225°, especially smaller ones. It very likely isn’t just quitting burning pellets, but more likely flaming out because it’s running out of fuel. However, by the time you’d ever see it, the fire would be gone and the auger would have dumped more pellets into a empty pot.

For years (maybe even still on less expensive models), these Traegers used a controller that was very timing driven. The settings below 225° were solely timing driven. So, weather, type of pellets, etc. all had a big impact on how accurate that 180° or 220° on the dial really was. The timing was adjustable on some with a button behind a pinhole. The lower the number, the less wait between runs of the auger. P-0 to P-2 was the only range I ran.

As a result of the instability of low temps causing flameouts, I rarely run more the a couple hours below 225° even though my last couple pellet grills probably could hold 180-200° indefinitely.

[UncleSpike]

I guess that makes sense.

[glitchy]

What are you needing to cook for long periods below 225°? My Traeger Junior was one of the best pellet grills I had if you accept the lack of fancy features. If you run on Smoke or 180° for an hour or two, then bump to 225° will it do what you need? Also, do you see a pinhole where you could adjust the P setting? It might be behind a little sticker that says call support/service. Often just to the right of the temp display. If you can find it, you might try P-0 or P-1. I cannot remember if default is P-2 or 3.

You can even post a pic of the controller and I can try to help more.

[UncleSpike]

Ok, thanks! I just looked at this website:

https://support.traeger.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407219721883-P-Settings

Never heard of it before, but I'll try it.

I like to make hamburger jerky, and smoke it as low as possible for a few hours. My grill typically runs hotter than it's set for - I'll play around with that P setting and see what I can do.