Cell health check doesn't work if can't obtain IP address

Hi there, we have 20 or so br1 minis deployed and on average I get a call a week from a client with no internet. Each router has two Sims, different carriers with smart check enabled, DNS test and http test. What seems to be happening is that the smart check handover to second Sim doesn’t fire because the router is stuck on obtaining IP address (for whatever reason, I think this is because we’ve picked particular LTE bands) In any case it seems to me that the logic is wrong as the switch to the alternate carrier isn’t even attempted which I can only assume is because the router is waiting for the cell to connect before running health checks. This isn’t an isolated incident on one unit, this has happened on at least 6 different ones. Is there a way to get the cell to reset it is not connected for say 5 minutes? Watchdog under support.cgi is some what poorly documented and from what I can see only reboots the router of there’s a software crash. Is that the case?