I will start by saying that Lighting builds an attractive tower. However, where Lightning excels at bending metal, they fall short in customer service, specific custom orders, and stereo installation.
About three summers ago I took my Four Winns Horizon 200 to Lightning to have a tower built and a simple two speaker system installed. Our boat must be garaged due to an HOA, which I explained to Tom. I gave Tom specific instructions to build the tower to my specifications so the boat could fit into my garage with the tower folded down. Tom assured me that this could be done without a problem.
When I picked up the boat the tower with speakers looked great. That's when Tom told me that he couldn't (or didn't) get the dimensions right and we would have to remove the tower completely off the boat to fit it in our garage. This was completely unacceptable. If Tom knew that the order could not be built to specification, he should have called and given me the option to cancel my order.
Now every time we use the boat we must reinstall the tower and then remove the tower at the end of the day - doing so takes 2-3 strong people. My parents are in their early 60's and this gets more and more difficult each season. Had I paid with a credit card rather than cash, i would have stopped payment and disputed the work through my credit card company. The few hundred dollars I saved by paying with cash was not worth the hassle of an incorrectly built tower. The tower and speakers totaled roughly $5500.
Furthermore, the first time i took the boat out on the water with the new tower, the speakers would crackle and also completely cut out when i would trim up or down. As it turns out the speaker system was also installed incorrectly. I had to take the boat back to Lightning, and when i did, i was met with aggressive behavior. After a lengthy argument in their parking lot one of their more knowledgeable employees got in my boat, looked around and confirmed that the stereo was wired incorrectly and agreed to fix the stereo installation.
Based on my experience, I cannot recommend Lightning Towers. I understand finding a business that builds attractive custom towers is difficult in Northern California, but what is the point if Lightning builds your custom order incorrectly, takes your money, and more or less tells you to be on your way. read more