Western Star VIN decoder,
from the NHTSA record.

A World Manufacturer Identifier is the first three characters of the VIN. NHTSA assigns each one to a manufacturer, and vPIC records the vehicle type and country it was issued for. The 8 codes below are the ones verified for Western Star in vPIC: 5KJ, 5KK, 2WK, 2WL, 5CK, 2WE, 2WM and 5CJ. The list is built from the manufacturers the VINs sampled for this page decode to, and NHTSA can have issued Western Star other codes for other plants and vehicle types. 5 of them appeared in the 150 Western Star VINs sampled from FMCSA roadside inspection records for this page; the rest are registered with NHTSA but did not show up in that sample.

DAIMLER TRUCK NORTH AMERICA LLC also files FREIGHTLINER with NHTSA, in some cases under the codes above (see the Freightliner page). Where a code is filed for more than one make, the makes-filed column says so. A VIN that starts with a code not in this table can still be a Western Star: decode it to check.

5KJJBHDR7NLMW3512 is a Western Star truck-tractor recorded in a roadside inspection and decoded clean by vPIC. Reading it left to right:

• Positions 1 to 3, 5KJ. The WMI. vPIC resolves it to DAIMLER TRUCK NORTH AMERICA LLC, filed for trucks and assigned to United States.
• Positions 4 to 8, JBHDR. The vehicle descriptor, whose meaning Western Star's manufacturer defines in its filing. For this VIN vPIC read model 5700, series Sleeper, body class Truck-Tractor, GVWR Class 8: 33,001 lb and above (14,969 kg and above) and engine Diesel DD15 from these five characters.
• Position 9, 7. The check digit, computed from the other sixteen characters. vPIC reports this VIN with error code 0, so the digit calculates correctly and the VIN was read right.
• Position 10, N. The model year code. vPIC decodes it as 2022. vPIC flags the code as ambiguous for this filing (year codes repeat every 30 years), so confirm against the certification label.
• Position 11, L. The assembly plant. vPIC names Cleveland, North Carolina, United States.
• Positions 12 to 17, MW3512. The production serial. It identifies the unit and decodes to nothing on its own.

vPIC's own pattern for this unit is 5KJJBHDR*NL: the positions it decoded from, with the check digit masked. Two Western Star VINs that share that pattern share every attribute vPIC filed for it and differ only in the check digit and the serial.

Two reads of the gross vehicle weight rating, both from the federal record. First, what the manufacturer registered with NHTSA:

• DAIMLER TRUCK NORTH AMERICA LLC. Registered with NHTSA in Portland, Oregon, United States as Completed Vehicle Manufacturer, Incomplete Vehicle Manufacturer and Importer of Motor Vehicles Originally Manufactured to Conform to FMVSS. Registered vehicle types: Truck, Class 5: 16,001 - 19,500 lb (7,258 - 8,845 kg) to Class 8: 33,001 lb and above (14,969 kg and above) (primary); Incomplete Vehicle, Class 6: 19,501 - 26,000 lb (8,845 - 11,794 kg) to Class 8: 33,001 lb and above (14,969 kg and above). 137 of the sampled Western Star VINs decoded to it.
• WESTERN STAR TRUCKS INC. Registered with NHTSA in Portland, OR, United States. Its registration record carries no GVWR range. 13 of the sampled Western Star VINs decoded to it.

Second, the GVWR class vPIC returned for each of the 150 Western Star VINs in the sample (a class is filed on 146 of them; the rest carry no GVWR in the manufacturer's filing):

• Truck-Tractor: 90 units
• Truck: 53 units
• Incomplete - Glider: 7 units

If the VIN is not to hand, the rating is on the certification label on the unit itself; how to find GVWR walks through where to look.

3 real Western Star VINs from FMCSA's roadside inspection file, each decoded by vPIC with error code 0. Every field shown is what the manufacturer filed; a field that is missing was not filed for that pattern. Paste any of them into the decoder above to see the full card.

FMCSA's Inspections Per Unit file (data.transportation.gov, dataset wt8s-2hbx) records every vehicle in a roadside inspection with the make code the inspector typed. It holds 36,132 truck tractor records under the code WSTR, 30,028 truck tractor records under the code WESTERN ST and 22,431 straight truck records under the code WSTR. Native Base pulled 150 distinct VINs from those codes and sent them to NHTSA vPIC in batches: 150 came back, 150 decoded as WESTERN STAR, and 142 with a clean error code. The decode, not the inspector's code, decides what a unit is, which is why the same make appears under several spellings in the file.

• Model years in the sample: 1994 to 2024.
• Plants vPIC named most: Portland, Oregon, United States (79), Cleveland, North Carolina, United States (58) and Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada (12).
• Vehicle types vPIC lists under the WESTERN STAR make: Truck and Incomplete Vehicle.
• WMIs verified one by one through vPIC DecodeWMI; manufacturer registrations from GetManufacturerDetails. Fetched 2026-09-27.

The same record, page by page. The truck and trailer VIN decoder takes any VIN and explains what a decode returns; each page below carries one manufacturer's WMI codes, VIN pattern, GVWR classes and worked decodes.

• Decode Freightliner VINs: WMI 3AK and 1FU, GVWR classes and worked examplesFreightliner VIN decoder →
• Decode Kenworth VINs: WMI 1XK and 1NK, GVWR classes and worked examplesKenworth VIN decoder →
• Decode Peterbilt VINs: WMI 1XP and 1NP, GVWR classes and worked examplesPeterbilt VIN decoder →
• Decode Volvo Truck VINs: WMI 4V4 and 4V5, GVWR classes and worked examplesVolvo Truck VIN decoder →
• Decode International VINs: WMI 3HS and 3HA, GVWR classes and worked examplesInternational VIN decoder →
• Decode Mack VINs: WMI 1M1 and 1M2, GVWR classes and worked examplesMack VIN decoder →
• Decode Hino VINs: WMI 5PV and JHH, GVWR classes and worked examplesHino VIN decoder →
• Decode Isuzu VINs: WMI JAL and 54D, GVWR classes and worked examplesIsuzu VIN decoder →
• Decode Utility trailer VINs: WMI 1UY and 3UT, GVWR classes and worked examplesUtility VIN decoder →
• Decode Wabash trailer VINs: WMI 1JJ, GVWR classes and worked examplesWabash VIN decoder →
• Decode Great Dane trailer VINs: WMI 1GR, GVWR classes and worked examplesGreat Dane VIN decoder →
• Decode Hyundai Translead trailer VINs: WMI 3H3, GVWR classes and worked examplesHyundai Translead VIN decoder →
• Decode Stoughton trailer VINs: WMI 1DW, GVWR classes and worked examplesStoughton VIN decoder →
• Decode Vanguard trailer VINs: WMI 5V8 and 2SH, GVWR classes and worked examplesVanguard VIN decoder →

Checking the same unit against the FMCSA crash file? The VIN crash check takes the same 17 characters.