I bought a 2003 KW. It was from out of state so I had to take it and have the VIN verified. The sticker on the door jamb is faded so you can just barely read it. The inspector almost refused to sign the paper. According to KW there is a # on the right front frame rail and on the outside of the cab left door. I have found both of these numbers but they are not the same as the serial # on the title or vin plate. You cannot read the gvw or other info usually on the vin sticker. If I take it to Kenworth can they print me up a new sticker and attach it? Many trucks have a vin number on the dash on left side by windshield so it can be read from outside.
sounds shady to me if the vin on the frame rail dont match the vin plate.
From what I understand the # on the frame rail is the serial # of the frame. Same with the cab. There are not enough numbers. The vin plate is only a sticker. Over the years by washing and waxing and sunlight, it has faded and hard to read. On my other trucks there is a metal plate with the serial# mounted on the left front of the dash so you can read it from outside. The sticker on the KW attached to the inside of the door post that has the GVW, serial #, tire size, axel ratio, is faded. I guess one of my main concerns. (it is rated 26k gvw) and I get stopped for a inspection and they try and look for the gvw rating and cant find it on the sticker.
Plenty of rolled trucks get used cabs. It wouldn't phase me a bit, fairly common way to fix a truck.
I always used the Vin # on the license registration papers if I couldn't find or read the sticker. For some reason Kenworth trucks were always a pain for that. It does sound kind of odd though with a truck that new. I thought they all had to have the seventeen digit number now to comply with the rest of the world. Peterbilt used to put a nice number panel on the dash that anyone could read. On cars now days all the panels have serial numbers and they are all supposed to match the Vin under the windshield.