Western Star Transportation

When I first saw a Western Star at a truck show outside of Windsor, Ontario in 1981 or 1982, I fell in love with it! I always wanted one and last Fall, I bought one.

It hadn't received a whole lot of TLC outside of the exterior brightwork and paint job. I put a lot of money into repairs initially, but after that, it runs as good as any other truck out there.

I'd love to get a newer one - mine's a 1996 model with up around 900k miles - but at this point, it's paid for and I'll just suck-it-up on the fuel mileage.

Western Star doesn't support the older models as much as I would like. With Sterling and Freighliner as part of their mix, I believe Western Star plays 2nd fiddle to the others.

Mine is a strong runner and it's holding up well. My loads always take me between 76 and 80k pounds and I never blink at running them with my truck.

I love the Western Star and if I were planning to stay in the business for 5 more years, I'd probably pop for a new one.


Kent

 

The truck you have now is the Westen Star that you would want. I believe that the 96 model was still handmade in Canada before frieghtliner bought them out. The original Stars (before frieghtliner) were great trucks. Since frieghtliner took over and started mass producing them,the qualityhas suffered. Not to say that the new ones are bad trucks, but they are no match to the older, handbuilt ones.

 

where I park my truck when I go home is a wrecking yard and the other day I parked right next to a star car log hauler that killed 6 people in a suburban last weekend when it pulled out in front of him. Amazingly that truck isn't in that bad of shape. so it gets my thumbs up. that's probably a 2000 model, mabey a bit newer. I think I'm going to go steal parts of of it!! lol

 

Have you seen the new International Lone Star??http://www.internationaltrucks.com/LoneStar/

Sweet ride, if I drove the trucks this would be it...

 

it evokes mixed feelings in people. either they love it or they hate it

 

Just sat in it at the truck show in Louisville. Nice upfront, I like what they did with the dash.
The sleeper is a curved couch that folds down into the bunk. Very nice fit and finish but it was the show truck. Said they start around 120k and go to 140k or so. They have about 75 different options available for the O/O.

 

I've driven a couple of different Western Stars. One was a 4964FX with a 450 Mercedes, 76" sleeper and the base model "fleet spec" seats and interior. It was a nice riding, relatively quiet truck, but those cheap seats were MURDER. The sleeper was nice and comfy. The Mercedes was beyond awful. I have driven 370 ISMs that had more power. The jakes on the Mercedes were a JOKE. More recently, I drove an '07 4900EX with 82" Ultra High sleper, Bostrom Wide Ride seats, 515 Detroit. Rode nice, pulled great, and that sleeper! WOW! I would not hesitate to grab one of those. I would have to say that the ride overall was just as good if not better than the '05 Pete 379 I drove for awhile, but had a lot more space in the cab.