Howdy Falcon,
I've been using a Traeger for 3 years. I haven't had it burn all the way back to the hopper, but I've had it burn back far enough to smoke up through the hopper. The only time I saw it, was after using a bag of pellets, that had a lot of extra dust in it, so I blamed myself for letting the dust get down into the auger, and giving it something to actually burn in there.
Other than that, I've had VERY few issues with it. I did replace the hot rod, this past winter after 3 summers of smoking with it.
I did get an Amazin dust smoker to set in it to add extra smoke, and to be able to use the chamber as a cold smoker. They work great!
Hope this answers your question...happy smokin'