How the fuck did you beat Episode 16 in your first playthrough?

the truck never appears. In fact how do you know the truck's location without a guide?

hardest mission on the game if you don't use youtube

Is that the one where the skulls jumps out of the truck? I don't remeber having any trouble finding it, i think you can get intel on the truck's route and its destination

There's a file in a camp that tells you the truck's expected route. I didn't get to it until it reached the very end of the line, by the oil field.

It's one of the easiest missions on repeat playthroughs though because you can just sneak into the airport before the truck even leaves, extract it, and then Fulton yourself out on a shipping container.

The fact that I remember this mission says something about it at least, although i had no trouble outside having to unlock the fulton upgrade.
Once you grab the intel, you'll get the estimated path, just follow that. Most likely you'll overtake the convoy, I think by the airport, so just pick a point and wait with C4.

Because Miller tells you where to find a document with the truck's route on it, idiot

This.
I cleared out an outpost and rigged it with c4 and ambushed the convoy.
It's not hard at all.

First time i did this mission without the fulton upgrade, had to drive the truck out of the hotzone, that shit is not suitable to run from skulls i tell ya

RPG's and shotguns

I remember that I just entered in the truck and started driving to the out of mission part of the map
And somehow I beat it without killing the skulls