Leisure Travel Vans Unity – Furnace Igniter & Control Board Replacement

Your Leisure Travel Vans Unity owner’s manual won’t spend much time on this one: when the furnace quits lighting mid-season, the dealer service write-up usually just says “replace igniter or control board” without explaining what actually fails, why it fails, or whether you can reasonably handle it yourself. The truth is, propane appliances sit in a gray zone — they’re not simple mechanical fixes, but they’re also not so far removed from basic electrical troubleshooting that a methodical owner can’t learn the territory. A failed igniter or dead control board on a Unity furnace is almost always the culprit when heat stops working, and I’ve spent enough time diagnosing these rigs to know that both parts are genuinely swappable if you approach the job with respect for the gas lines and power connections involved. I’ve rolled up to parked Unitys in late October with owners huddled in blankets, and every single diagnosis pointed to one of these two components — so if you take the safety steps seriously and follow the sequence, this repair is absolutely in reach.

The Igniter That Actually Survives Propane Cycling on a Unity Furnace

The igniter electrode is where most Unity furnace failures start — it either won’t spark when the control board sends voltage, or it sparks inconsistently and the board keeps shutting down the burner thinking there’s a safety issue. Once you’ve confirmed the control board is firing the ignition circuit, this is the part that determines whether you’re actually heating or just listening to the blower run.

What works

• OEM-equivalent spark gap and ceramic insulator survive repeated thermal cycling without cracking or carbon tracking — the cheap aftermarket versions fail again in 18 months.
• Wire assembly is pre-routed with strain relief molded in, so you’re not fumbling with a bare probe trying to get it seated exactly 3/32″ from the burner tube.
• Once installed and the furnace fires, you’ll hear a crisp snap-snap-snap on ignition, not the wet sputtering that tells you the electrode is weeks away from failure.

What doesn’t

• Shipping times from third-party Amazon sellers can stretch 2–3 weeks; if you’re parked in November without heat, order this before you’re stranded.
• The connector clip is fragile plastic — if you’re not careful during removal, you’ll crack it and spend an extra hour splicing new wire, which means you need a soldering iron and heat-shrink tubing on hand.

I second-guessed myself the first time I installed one of these because the spark looked slightly weaker than the OEM part I’d pulled out, but it fired consistently on the first ignition cycle and held steady for the entire 20-minute test run. Fit For Suburban RV Furnace Parts 232286,Single Probe Gas Furnace Igniters Electrode with Wire Assembly, Camper Furnace For Suburban 232286 Above 934701426 SF-20, SF-25, SF-30, SF-35 (SF Series)

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