Im with sicpupidaho - We cut about 1" to 1.5" out of mine and it works fine. Drove it over 4 hours to heritage and back with no problems. We sectioned the original pan and cut the pickup tube.
yeh i setioned mine the other afternoon, took out a little more than 1", heres some pics of the aftermath, just tacked for now till i get the time to weld it up