Here is something I just thought about. I never did like the idea of the white star on the door as it makes a perfect target. We tried to get them removed or just paint over them, but we were told, no way. I think this was done for use in Korea so U.S. planes would not mistake them for enemy trucks. But in Vietnam all OD green trucks were US military, so it did not make any sense, to me anyway. Also the V17s had a bad habit of snapping off the lug nuts on the rear wheels when loaded down with equipment. One time we stopped somewhere and I just happen to look and only two lug nuts was holding on one of the rear wheels as the all the other studs just snapped off. One of the odd quirks of these trucks.
Another problem was the grease seals in the front end would leak and would need replacment every so often. When they would leak grease would be thrown around the front wheels and fenders. You had to keep your truck clean and any rust spots painted over with OD green paint at all times, it was a real mess to clean up the grease. Sometimes the grease seals on the rear axles would leak and throw grease around the rear fenders and wheels. Other than leaking grease seals, rear lug nuts snapping off there were no other serious problems with the V17s.
No oil filters were available in country so all the trucks had the original 1952 oil filters, just change the oil only. Drain air tanks every day. Check batteries for proper fluid level. Check oil. Always started day after day and ran just fine, never overheated. Great brakes for such a heavy truck, lots of under steer and took both hands to drive it as no power steering, no seat belts either. Small left side mirror with a huge blind spot to the rear right side. Make lots of left turns but very few right turns or none if you could. Lane changes in traffic, forget it.
The windshield wipers were fun to watch go back and forth, but did not do much. The canvas top was leak free even in a hard rain. The bed had a canvas cover that kept most but not all the rain out, Rusty equipment was a problem, but the side bins were leak free but not dust free as the dust would really collect on the equipment.
The lighting at night was better than nothing, but not by much. The front window latch was just the right size to hold the little RCA transistor radio I bought at the PX so I had AFVN radio to listen while driving to if you could hear it over the exhaust and all the rattle and banging around of the equipment in the back end. Just get in and go. Some what slow but could carry a lot of equipment. Always got you where you needed to go, but was a real gas hog lol.
Also never drive off with the front or rear winch in operation as it would bend in the front bumper. Never happened to me, but it did happen to other V17s as it was easy to see the damage it caused. All the front winch shear pins were replaced with bolts after a while and would not break the winch if you were careful and always used snatch blocks. Never once seen a broken winch. The front winch cable would ball up sometimes and cause the cable to become so intangled that it was very hard to get it off the drum.
Using the front winch and the drive wheels at the same time to get unstuck was almost hopeless as the winch would usually pull faster than the drive wheels as the drive wheels would slip and of course the winch would still be pulling or the wheels would grip and the winch cable would go slack and then go too tight and the winch cable would ball up. So you could really get in a worse mess quickly.
Better to use snatch blocks, long log chains and just let the winch pull you out. The rear winch was very powerful with the very long cable and with enough snatch blocks and log chains you could pull anything out of the mud if you have something solid to hook on to. One time I hooked the rear winch to a power pole to pull the truck out of a mud hole only to see in the rear view mirror the pole bending over with a 13000 volt power line coming down at the truck.
A flat tire was usually a two man job as they were heavy. I replaced one myself one time and it was a real slow go and took some doing. The onboard compressed air with the air hose was handy for filling low tires with small leaks.
The V 17s were some what top heavy and liked to slide off mud roads side ways into the ditch. They would lean way over to the side, but not fall over even though it seemed like it would. I was told that the single rear wheels had better off road traction and that is why the V17 had them on the rear, but I don't know one way or the other if it made a difference. I do know the extra weight of the bed loaded down made for really good straight line braking and the rear end would not hop around like a duce sometimes would under hard braking. The brakes were very good and hard braking would throw all the equipment in the back up against the cab.
Even though the V17 was obsolete by 1969 for working on modern cable based communications facilities, it could still prove useful in many situations. The amount of equipment you could cram into a V17 was amazing.
