The Dukes of Hazzard and the General Lee ALWAYS got away from Roscoe P. Coltrane the hard way - Jumpin' that gorge! Is those spectacular jumps possible to perform and then just drive away?

Talk About It Here!

MythMod

yeah in indiana jones he falls through three awnings and landson the fouth ne

I watched a behind the scenes show about The Dukes of Hazzard and they really did the jump with a stunt driver and lots of hay for softer landing, point is, they did it for real for the movie!

This was an interesting test, but I think they overlooked something. In the movie, Bo and Luke were sitting in the car. Should they have added 350 pounds or so to the cabin of the car to simulate two adults in the vehicle? Would this weight have altered the center of gravity enough to keep the car more level instead of taking the nosedive?

Just caught the jump. I noticed that the front of the car dipped down in mid-air. This suggests that the weight of the engine pulled the front down. How would this work if a similar weight was in the trunk. Or maybe a little bit greater weight, to have it land on the back axle first. Really, it probably needs heavy duty shocks too.

I know they said the myth was busted but what if there was a inclined landing ramp? Its possible that the car could land and keep going.

From being in a High School Physics class a few years ago, the angle at which something is launched at (say a football or in this case a vehicle) is going to impact how it will be oriented when the arc ends.

Therefore, more time has to be put into the building of the dirt mound than I believe was done in the episode.

The angle at which it is launched at will be the same angle (only reverse) for when it lands. In this case, since the ramp was so short (from front to back), it was a rapid change in the terrain, thus the vehicle wasn't able to have the tires hit prior to the bumper due to the angle of impact.

Also, if you're trying to get it a certain distance, you need to increase the speed. There was no measurement of the speed in the film, so therefore it seems inconclusive to me.

Of course this is assuming the center of mass is actually in the center, and as Greatwillmiester suggested, the center of mass was likely not in the center. The only other flaw that I realized in my logic above is the wind resistance, but in the grand scheme of things, that is neglidgible.

In the original opening sceen of the dukes of hazard the genral lee jump a police car and lands just fine... but in order to do so there was some where around 200lbs of concrete in the trunk. So i say that jamie and adam need to re-test this.

I also left out that there was some major damage to the front and rear passanger fender.
but the car was still driveable... all the way to the junk yard where it sat for 27 years and was just recinly found.

I heard if you put weight in the back it evens out the car in the middle of flight so it lands evenly and you can drive away instead of that awesome nose dive you did on tv.

Actually, he approximated the angle of theramp and the speed of the car as well as he could. The problem I see here is because of the vehicle itself. The car looked like and old Buick Regal or one of its analogs (a Chevy Monte Carlo or a Pontiac...Grand Am?). Anyways, these cars weight would not be the same as the Dodge Charger (The General Lee) and more importantly, the weight distrubution of the car. The angle won't in and of itself be enough because the center of gravity moves around. The trajectory remains 30 degrees, but the car itself does not. Also important enough to consider is the drag coefficient of the two cars, which would cause variation in the trajectory itself. If the Charger has a lower drag coefficient, its trajectory will degrade more slowly than the Buick. Finally, the exact position of the car on theramp is important, because any slight variation can cause a major difference. There is a reason that Hollywood hires special stunt drivers for special driving scenes: It isn't easy to get right. I honestly think the chances of succeeding at this with remote control is impossible.

Oh. I almost forgot. You would need a modified suspension in order for the car to not fall apart. This is OK with the General Lee, cause it wasn't supposed to be a stock car. It was a moonrunner car, based off Jerry Rushing's '58 Chrysler 300D.

Make sure we keep in mind that they are testing the reality of that jump. To create the movie effect, yes, they probably evened out the vehicle by weighting the trunk, but two men trying to spontaneously jump a ramp in a pursuit are not going to stop to load their trunk w/ extra weight. I think it needs to be re-tested, but not with a weighted trunk, but rather, as I stated earlier, the passenger compartment.

Actually, weighting a trunk was a fairly common practice in many places because most vehicles were rear-wheel drive, and weight in the back gives you more traction. In that particular area (portrayed in the movie) I don't know if it would have been utilized, but the old moonrunner I know did just that because he lived in the mountains. That, and the fact you wanted to pack your bottle of moonshine in so they didn't shatter.

All of this is well and good, but let's also remember there was moonshine in the trunk. I'd be more interested in finding out if that could have possibly survived that jump.

same episode as the dukes of hazzard jump, when they were cutting the swords, on the carbon steel katana vs carbon steel katana... if they had cut through the back side of the blade, which is the weakest part of the blade itself it would have been possible to sever the blade in half.. i think they should redo that particular part of the test

Ariyel...who says the dukes were doing sponaneous jumps? It seems like they did them every five minutes! If they didn't at some point add weight in their trunk to help them stay alive, their just complete morons.

I would just like to point something out. In the movie Bo and luke were in the front seat and Daisy was in the back. ALSO** what you can not forget is that they were boot leggers and they had shine in the trunk. a scene right before that shows. SO... i think they they should add the weight of bo and Luke in the front with daisy and the shine in the back.

The study they did the car was pointed down mid air. If there was the weight of daisy in the back along with the shine I think that would of made a difference and that in FACT they would be able to get away.

In The Dukes of Hazzard whether or not their are people in the car,there is still a roll cage in the car because it is a race car so that also adds weight to the car and also it was also a dodge charger not some old ford the weight distribution of the car is probobly different. And also the landing in the movies weren't also smooth but they could drive away because the had custom shocks and leaf springs and etc.so i think that mythbusters should try a dodge charger

This Myth is totally busted! As a kid my dad used to tell me that they would replace the 'General Lee' after every jump they made.

If you 'wiki' the General lee it clearly states that none of the cars survived any of the jumps.


"Through the history of the show, an estimated 309 General Lees were used. Twenty three are still known to exist in various states of repair... These Chargers performed many record-breaking jumps throughout the show,almost all of which resulted in a completely destroyed car"

yea the weight of the engen brought the front of the car down and it lookd AWSOME!!!