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Folks need to think differently on how the return air gets to your furnace in your 5er than your home. In your home the cold air return ducts are connected to the furnace and that is the only place they get their air supply so you cannot block them without affecting the supply of air to the furnace.
In your RV particularly most if not all Montana's the furnace draws air from all around the area where the furnace is located, that includes the length of the unit and the entire space above the covering under the tanks which encloses the entire bottom of the RV. On most units there is also an opening between the area where the furnace is mounted and the storage space (basement).
While it may be desirable to draw cold air from inside the living area of the RV, in reality there is minimal air being drawn from that area through the vents under the stairs.
Ideally the RV furnace would draw all of its cold (return) cold air from within the RV in which case you would be circulating the slightly cooler air from near the floor through the furnace again to reheat it. That however is not reality.
I have closed mine off both in the summer to assist in cooling and in winter to stop the cold drafts from entering the RV from under the stairs. That has had no affect on the performance of the furnace.
I know others on this forum will disagree with me on this subject, so if you want to know exactly how and where your furnace gets it's air, open up the wall of the storage compartment and look at the furnace and judge for yourself.
Close the steps off completely, put filter material in there if you wish as some have done, BUT do not believe you are starving your furnace for air, it simply is not the case.
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