diff --git a/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
index 9aab7b39f..d89d67685 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
@@ -78,7 +78,10 @@ def do_merge_lora(
 
     LOG.info("running merge of LoRA with base model")
     model = model.merge_and_unload(progressbar=True)
-    model.to(dtype=cfg.torch_dtype)
+    try:
+        model.to(dtype=cfg.torch_dtype)
+    except RuntimeError:
+        pass
 
     if cfg.local_rank == 0:
         LOG.info(f"saving merged model to: {str(Path(cfg.output_dir) / 'merged')}")