Pro 34 Temperature Loss

MedTech

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Fullerton, CA
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Pro 34
Hi all,
New to the forum here, just found the forum while trying to find answers on the issues with my Traeger. I bought a Pro 34 around 4 years ago, the first couple of years was flawless but then all the little issues started to occur. One issue that is driving me nuts and always happens on long cooks is the Traeger will drop out in temperature and throw an LEr code. While recovering from the code, the process has to be done just right otherwise you will have a fire. Just a couple of days ago, just shortly after pre-heating, the meat was on maybe 20 minutes at 180F and I walked outside and saw the temp down to 120. I looked under the pellet hopper to see if the fans were running and I would see the fan on the auger motor come on and noticed when that happened the whole motor would twist so I thought maybe some mounting screws came out or loosened up. Anyway, to get temp back to finish the cook, I shut down the unit the normal way and then restarted the unit the normal way and everything worked fine for the rest of the cook.

I took the hopper off a couple of days ago to inspect the auger motor, thinking the twisting of the motor may have been jamming the auger, and found the motor is not mounted to the frame at all. The motor is only mounted to the auger and via a pin, this seems not right. I am wondering from any other Pro 34 owners out there if there auger motor also free-floats or if mine is missing a mount from manufacturing or when Home Depot assembled it.

I have attached a video, would love to get this issue resolved not only because the grill is not working as it should for the price they charge for these things, I am tired of having to plan equipment downtime through my cooks as I know a problem will occur.

Thanks in advanced!
 

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That the norm, my 2012 traeger is the same way. I believe aftermarket replacements have a bracket. If not it would be fairly simple to get a bracket from the hardware store and modify to hold the motor in place.
 
That the norm, my 2012 traeger is the same way. I believe aftermarket replacements have a bracket. If not it would be fairly simple to get a bracket from the hardware store and modify to hold the motor in place.
I found this online, don't think I could machine one myself for this given time and material:


Crazy to me that they just let this motor flop around.
 
I found this online, don't think I could machine one myself for this given time and material:


Crazy to me that they just let this motor flop around.
Tha crazy part about it is, they aren’t the only manufacturer that does it this way.🤷
 
It sounds like your auger motor isn't mounted properly, which could definitely be causing issues. On my Pro 34, the motor is securely attached to the frame, so it seems like something may have been missed during assembly. I'd recommend contacting Traeger support to see if they can help with the mount and resolve the LEr code issue. Hopefully, it gets fixed soon so you can cook without the hassle!
 
So I recently replaced the Auger motor with a larger, 2 RPM unit from Smoke Daddy as well as the mounting bracket. I have only done one cook since replacing these items however that first cook went without any hiccups. Also, I always had issues trying to make the higher temps inside the grill (325 and above) when the temp outside was below 60 F, the temp outside on this first cook was around 56 and my temps inside grill were beautiful, best I have ever seen with low ambient temps, no issues at all reaching the temperature set point. Also, on the high setting, I have never reached the 450 degree set point in the past, with this newer motor and mounting bracket the high temp we to 435 which is the highest I have ever seen and this was on the same 56 degree day.

These are the items I purchased:

I am hoping that these parts were the key and that the grill continues to perform.
 
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