Jumps, Crashes, and Chases
Although Tom Wopat and John Schneider do their own combat scenes and did a minuscule driving in the first unit General , all the show ’s outstanding chases and parachuting were performed by a skilled crew of stunt driver . No one was ever anguish filming a Dukes stunt , although there was one death on the set in 1979 when there was a freak accident involving a truck shoot background scene .
The " Dukes of Hazzard " stunt crew did a lot of fancy driving , executing " moonshiner " turns , high - speed drifting on poop roads , and break - neck chase scene . However , the General Lee is know best for taking on huge jumps – clearing rivers , gullies , main road , other railroad car , and eventrains . The train stunt was ab initio imagine to jump the General through the opened door of a move boxcar , but budget restriction vary it to a simple jump over the caravan .
The highest parachuting the General ever performed accept place in the first episode featuring the " replacement Dukes , " cousin Coy and Vance ( Wopat and Schneider were on strike due to a contract difference with the studio apartment ) . To net the full Duke family farm , the stunt crew had to usenitrous oxideto give the General a slight encouragement .
Very picayune stunt footage was ever reused in " The Dukes of Hazzard . " That entail that every time you see the General make a jump - and come crashing down - the stunt crew went out and performed that jump . Of of course , there is n’t a car in the earth that can drive by from a jump the likes of the ones the General performed . In fact , each jump practically destroyed the railroad car , ripping the engine mounts , crouch the chassis , and ruin the suspension . At first , the studio buy replacement cars from nearby used car lots ( where the original was found ) . However , they quickly grease one’s palms and crashed every 1969 Dodge Charger in the neighborhood . finally , a special studio apartment shop class was built that crank out General Lees , along with the other various vehicles drive and break up in the show . Over 150 General Lees were produced , along with 500 other cars , mostly police cars .
