The Fall Guy truck was a two-tone GMC K-2500 Sierra Grande, and the ones that flew had their engines moved into the cab. Lee Majors’ stuntman hero jumped it so often that stock pickups couldn’t take the punishment. So the production built special jump trucks with the V8 sitting mid-chassis, where it kept the landings level.
Majors played Colt Seavers, a stuntman who also worked as a bounty hunter on the side. As a result, his GMC was his partner in nearly every chase, and the jumps became the show’s signature.
However, most viewers never knew the truck in the air wasn’t the truck in the parking lot. The difference was all underneath.
The Fall Guy truck on the street
First, the hero truck. According to Street Muscle’s ranking of TV cars, the show ran from 1981 through 1986. Street Muscle identifies the main truck as a 1982 GMC K-2500 Sierra Grande Wideside.
The model year depends on the episode, however. RealTruck’s profile of the truck says it is “said to be a 1982 model,” but the screen-used pickups varied from 1981 to 1986.
Early episodes used something else entirely. Street Muscle says the first seasons featured a 1980 GMC K-25 4×4 with a six-inch lift kit and 35-inch Dick Cepek off-road tires. It also carried a chrome rollbar with several high-watt lights.
TFLtruck adds a few details about that first truck. Its look back at the show says the 1980 pickup was a “Rounded line” K-25 and also wore a Warn winch. The same piece dates the series from November 4, 1981, to May 2, 1986.
For the later Sierra Grande, Street Muscle lists a 350-cubic-inch V8 and a three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic 350 automatic. RealTruck adds the look fans remember: gold and brown two-tone paint, chrome 16.5×10 wheels and 36x15R16.5 Dick Cepek Fun Country tires.
Why the jump trucks had the engine in the cab
The early stunts were real, and they were expensive. Motor1, citing BangShift, says the first seasons used stock GMC trucks bought from GM. Without computer effects, every jump really happened, and the landings wrecked trucks and raised production costs.
A stock pickup carries its engine up front. As a result, it tends to tip nose-first off a ramp. Motor1 explains that the crew moved the engine into the middle of the truck, inside the cabin, so the jumps landed level instead of nose-diving.
Street Muscle also describes the jump truck in more detail. It had reinforced axles and frame, and it carried 800 pounds of lead. With the engine mounted in the center of the cab, Street Muscle says, the production destroyed fewer trucks.
Similarly, RealTruck tells the story from GM’s side. It says General Motors supplied numerous K2500s for filming. After early stunts destroyed many standard pickups, GM built specially engineered jump trucks with beefed-up suspension, heavy-duty axles, extra safety gear and a mid-mounted V8.
In fact, Street Muscle says neither the 1980 truck nor the 1982 truck made the jumps. HotCars adds that the stunt trucks were reportedly built from a 1977 GMC pickup by 20th Century shop mechanics.
Meanwhile, Motor1’s jump story also embeds a roughly five-minute compilation of every jump, from the YouTube channel kflash7269. Even Motor1’s writer gave up counting: “We lost count, but there are a lot of jumps in this 5-minute video.” Motor1 puts the show at 133 episodes over five seasons.
A hidden spot in the bed
The hero truck had one more trick for the bounty-hunting plots. Street Muscle says a secret compartment ran the width of the bed. It was large enough to hold a fugitive in custody, which suited a show about a stuntman chasing bail jumpers.
TFLtruck describes the same hiding spot as roughly the size of a large bed-mounted toolbox, reached from the side of the truck. In its words, it was “big enough to hold naughty fugitives.”
Where the trucks went
The show used up trucks quickly. HotCars says it damaged so many that GMC was running short of donor vehicles. Later, after the series ended, the remaining trucks went to auction, although HotCars doesn’t say who bought them.
One surviving truck sold on eBay in 2003, according to HotCars. Replicas keep turning up as well. HotCars reports that one built by members of the Vincennes University Auto Club sold at a Barrett-Jackson auction for $50,000.
The Fall Guy truck in the 2024 movie
The story got a new chapter in 2024. RealTruck notes that Universal released The Fall Guy movie that May, with Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers. Early in the film, Gosling drives a replica of the 1982 Sierra Grande, then later switches to a 2024 GMC Sierra AT4X in the same two-tone colors.
GMC made the most of it. The brand’s own page on the film says the Sierra 1500 AT4X and the GMC Hummer EV were “co-starring” and that both trucks “do their own stunts.”
Before release, Motor1’s look at the trailer spotted the brown-and-gold AT4X jumping over parked cars. It also noted a brief shot of a high-riding early 1980s GMC K-2500 in the same colors, with a roll bar and chrome wheels. That quick shot is a clear nod to the original show truck.
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