I have a small grill, I believe its a 20 series. Lately if I want to run it on smoke or even at 180 the fire goes out. I assumed it was too much ash but today I cleaned it out and there was almost nothing, but when I shut it down and restart it, it fires back up.  Any idea what could be causing this? Its happened roughly 3 times now.

Have you tried taking the grates and such out so the burn pot is visible and watch the whole startup process?
You will be able to see what is going on that way and maybe narrow down the cause.

Traeger used to have a cold weather setting on their controller to change which would allow for longer startup time to get to temp.  Most controllers time out after x minutes if they don't hit set temp.

 Good point about removing the internals & watching.

 You may also want to dial in a cook temp IE: 325º and see if it preforms well. Bear in mind, cold weather and Traeger are not friends.  If it works, the problem could be damp pellets. If that's the case, dry or change them.

 If the controller has "P" settings, the"P" or pause time could be too much allowing the fire to burnout  before the auger restarts.
 
 Keep us posted please.

My response was going to be P setting!

 Good point about removing the internals & watching.

 You may also want to dial in a cook temp IE: 325º and see if it preforms well. Bear in mind, cold weather and Traeger are not friends.  If it works, the problem could be damp pellets. If that's the case, dry or change them.

 If the controller has "P" settings, the"P" or pause time could be too much allowing the fire to burnout  before the auger restarts.
 
 Keep us posted please.

I used it today at high temp and it had no problem. I didn't pull the grease tray and watch the start up, but I'm guessing it was the cold, my Traeger is basic and doesn't have a "P" setting!  Thanks for the help.

Why are you after smoke or 180 in winter? Are you trying to make jerky or something? If you set to 225+ and you’ll probably be fine. No idea what Traeger settled on when they dumped the P-Setting, but good chance the logic is still there, they just picked a setting and rolled with it. Though it’s often the basic Traegers that had the p-setting until the newer controllers came out in last couple years. It’s a little hole in the face of the controller.

My response was going to be P setting!

That was my first thought. But I'm not sure that the newer Traegers have the ability to change the P settings. Setting P setting to zero solved similar problems when I had then. I have since switched to first a SS3 then an SS4.

Why are you after smoke or 180 in winter? Are you trying to make jerky or something? If you set to 225+ and you’ll probably be fine. No idea what Traeger settled on when they dumped the P-Setting, but good chance the logic is still there, they just picked a setting and rolled with it. Though it’s often the basic Traegers that had the p-setting until the newer controllers came out in last couple years. It’s a little hole in the face of the controller.

I was going to smoke some steaks at the lower temp, pull them off, turn the temp us and finish with a sear.

I was going to smoke some steaks at the lower temp, pull them off, turn the temp us and finish with a sear.

I get wanting them in the smoke longer then. I reverse steaks at 225-250 a lot and still get no banding though.

Does your controller have a little sticker that says call for service? They might be hiding the p-setting button under that. If you haven’t called them, might be worth a shot.

 There may be some help out there.. An Ortech controller.. Has: "P" settings, a cool down cycle, reads in 5º increments and comes with an RTD (shorter length).. I had one on my Lil Tex I gave to my daughter. 

 It  worked well. The 5º increment display was nice as it eliminated the small temperature swing #'s that tended to not really do much more than be a nuisance.

 The cool down cycle is timed, not temperature driven..  Forgot. Made in the USA.