bed off for c-notch 100% necessary?

I am going to be doing the notch on my dually this Friday and wont have anyone around to help lift the bed off. Western Chassis says it's not necessary with their notch, anyone else done it with the bed on?

Here is a pic of my truck fresh from paint

just a bolt on notch bed removal should not be needed, although much easier. Get some sharp drill bits and have at it. Make sure you get it lined up correctly before drilling or cutting the notch. I would get the truck nice and level, block the frame in front and behind the axle to keep it from flexing while cutting. Do one side at a time and finish it before the other side. The bed will actually help keep everything straight as well.

I left the bed on when I did mine. It wasn't too difficult, but it would have been easier to pull the bed.

Agreed with both...the job will be much easier with the bed off. You got six of one, half a dozen of the other - you can make the job harder by leaving the bed on, or trade that work out for taking the bed off instead. IMO the end result is you'll be able to do a better job and hit your head less with the bed off, so it's worth it.

Probably the biggest two catches to installing a notch:

Be sure you support the frame front and rear so it doesn't flex at all when you chop it out. You don't want your shit to end up looking like it has a dump bed on it...

Measure where you're going to cut and install about eleventy-million times. If you get it too far forwards or backwards even just a little bit, the metal bump stop pad on the axle will smack the angled portion of the notch before it could ever touch the bump stop, and you'll hate that.

Richard

^^^Word.^^^