Fall Guy And The 1981 GMC K-2500 Wideside Truck

The fall guy is a TV series that features Lee Majors as the actor who plays Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stunt man who moonlights as a bounty hunter. He uses his physical skills and knowledge of stunt effects (especially stunts involving cars or his large GMC pickup truck) to capture fugitives and criminals. He is accompanied by his cousin and stuntman-in-training Howie Munson (Barr), whom Colt frequently calls “Kid”, and occasionally by fellow stunt performer Jody Banks

The Fall Guy hit the tube from 1981 to 1986, totaling 133 episodes in its five seasons. Part of what makes the series very captivating is the multiple jumps performed by Lee Majors’ GMC pickup truck. A breakdown of the 1982 GMC K-2500 Sierra Grande Wideside pickup truck features is given below.

How Real Were The Jumps?
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The series features remarkable stunts and as awesome as the jumps themselves, there’s a tiny bit of secret embedded within the GMC pickup truck. According to BangShift, the early years of The Fall Guy used stock GMC trucks for production. These trucks were bought from GM. Since there were no special effects and computer graphics to recreate stunts back then, the jumps were real, which in turn beat the truck to pieces, increasing the production cost.

To save money on cost, the production decided to customize certain pickup trucks so that they could withstand the abuse of the stunts. The customization includes amped-up dual shock suspension, braced axles, and some additional safety measures for the stunt driver. Even better, the engine has been relocated in the middle of the truck (yes, inside the cabin) so that the jumps would be straight instead of the truck nose-diving towards the Earth. Notably, the stunt truck in the TV series is a mid-engine pickup truck which is pure genius.

Seavers’s 1981 GMC K-2500 Wideside with the Sierra Grande
Seavers’s truck was a Rounded-Line 1981 GMC K-2500 Wideside with the Sierra Grande equipment level package. A Rounded-Line 1980 GMC K-25 Wideside with the High Sierra equipment level package was also used. During the show’s initial series the stunts took their toll on the modified production trucks, supplied at low cost to the production by General Motors, so several different years, makes (Chevy/GMC) and models were used during the show’s initial run. As a result, there are some inconsistencies in the episodes.

From the second season onwards, General Motors supplied three specially adapted trucks for the stunt sequences, with the engine moved to a mid-chassis position immediately under the cab seat. This meant that these trucks flew further and pitched less in the air, allowing them to be reused for multiple takes and shows. At the end of the series, the remaining trucks were either auctioned or given away in a contest. One of them was sold on eBay in 2003

The Engine composition and performance
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GMC and Chevrolet introduced the 6.2L V8 Detroit Diesel engine in the C/K 1500/2500/3500 pickups in 1982. This non-turbocharged diesel engine was also available in 1/2-ton applications including the Suburban and Blazer. The 6.2L was a reliable and durable engine option for truck owners. GM produced this engine to be more fuel-efficient compared to their gas-guzzling small-block and big-block V8 engines.

A cast-iron block and cylinder head were employed by the Detroit 6.2L diesel engine to provide a solid foundation. This engine features an overhead valve design with 2 valves per cylinder, for a total of 16 valves. An indirect injection system was utilized on this engine, which required less fuel pressure than modern diesel injectors. The heart of this fuel system was the fully mechanical Stanadyne DB2 injection pump that had a maximum pressure of 6,700 PSI. The Detroit 6.2L engine was naturally aspirated and wasn’t fitted with a turbocharger, which was a common configuration for many diesel engines of the time.

The 6.2L diesel engine was rated at 130 hp and 240 lb-ft of torque initially while the higher output 6.2L diesel engine built for the US Army was rated at 165 hp and 330 lb-ft of torque. During its final production year, the Detroit 6.2L was rated at 143 hp and 257 lb-ft of torque. There were three transmission options for this engine, the TH400 3-speed automatic, the SM645 4-speed manual, or the NP833 4-speed manual overdrive transmission. By the end of 1993, the Detroit 6.2L V8 diesel engine was replaced by the Detroit 6.5L V8 diesel engine.

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