10-4 Magazine September 2022

all they learned about was cars, but the second year was fun, because it was all about the trucks. Turning 21 around the time he graduated, Tyler immediately hit the road, running OTR for his dad, traveling all over the United States – it was his dream finally come true! Unfor tunately, that dream only lasted about five months. Throughout his entire life, Tyler always had a funny “twitch” that would act up every once in a while. When he was younger, it didn’t happen very often (a couple times a month), but as he got older, the incidents increased. When it happened, he would sometimes get a noticeable twitch in his arm or stumble over his own feet when walking. People used to make fun of him for being clumsy, but he couldn’t help it. After finally going to see a doctor in May 2014, he was diagnosed with Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy – a fairly common and mild form of general epilepsy. But this meant he could no longer drive. Getting married the very next month after his diagnosis, in June of 2014, Tyler went into this marriage not knowing what his future held. The rug had been pulled out from underneath him! He drove for a few more months, but at the end of 2014, he hauled his last load of pigs. And it was a doozy. It was one of those terrible loads, where everything goes wrong, and you just want to quit trucking. Well, after this load, Tyler did quit. He figured it was the perfect load to end on. But the next few months were dark days for Tyler, as he began working in his dad’s shop again, which is not what he really wanted to do, struggling to find his place and fight off his ongoing depression. Back in high school, Tyler had bought a few trucks to fix up and resell and made some tidy profits off the deals. Thinking that might be the answer, he bought a truck and star ted fixing it up in one of the back bays of his dad’s shop. Rebuilding a 2001 Peterbilt 379 to flip in 2015, Van Der Zwaag (VDZ) Customs was born, but that first year was tough (they could barely make ends meet). Later that year, things star ted to get better, and Tyler built a second truck. Teaching himself, he painted the entire truck on his own. In 2016, they added on to the shop and created a small space just for Tyler. From then on, he began building about two trucks a year, and the business just continued to grow. Over the next couple of years, VDZ Customs continued to grow, and Tyler eventually took over 10-4 Magazine / September 2022 11 the entire shop building. Doing custom builds for himself and now outside customers, he also did all sor ts of engine repair work, body and paint, sleeper swaps, and accessory installations. In 2018, to improve the quality of his work, he built a legit 30 x 40 paint booth inside their building, which is large enough to park a complete big rig truck in. This paint booth took their builds to the next level. Today, he has a crew of three full-time employees and room enough to park six trucks inside at once – and these days, all of the bays are full most of the time. Hiring Jeremy Darnell in 2018 to be the main painter, this guy is super talented, and an impor tant par t of the VDZ Customs team. In 2020, Tyler hired Trent Hoogland, who does it all, and is great with the fine details (this guy doesn’t miss a thing). And then in January 2022, Tyler brought in Clay Petitt to join the team, and this guy can tear it all down and put it all back together and is capable of doing just about anything. They no longer do major engine work, unless its par t of a complete build, and focus more on paint and body, fabrication, and custom installs. If you can dream it, they can build it! Tyler prides himself on using as few store bought bolt-on accessories as possible, and his latest work/show truck is a testimony to that. Wanting to buy an older truck and fix it up for a driver, Tyler found this 1995 Peterbilt 379 for sale in Arkansas in January of 2021 and bought it sight unseen. When he arrived to pick it up, it was a little rougher than he expected and it didn’t run, so the small customization project turned into a full rebuild, but he was cool with