[jambop]

I am about to get a second hand tunnel from a friend which come with a new cover. I do not know the manufacture but it looks a bit like a Premier tunnel I have seen on their site.
 Anyway looking for opinions. I have looked at different methods of fixing the cover and my preference would be to use a timber base rail. It looks much neater than using a trench. I would be using ground anchors to fix the frame and also the rail will be fixed using some form of ground anchor... I am thinking of using rebar for that.
Has anybody got info on pro's and con's ?

[John]

My polytunnel has a timber base rail. It is neat and easier to set up. If the cover has to be replaced, much easier with a base rail system. No fishing bits of plastic from a trench for starters.

[snowdrops]

I bought my tunnel this year from first tunnels & opted for their aluminium base rail, but I went for a scaffolding planked base to push the aluminium base rail onto as I was concerned I might damage the plastic whilst gardening ,so far so good, very neat, easy to level & fix to the uprights of the hoops with extra exhaust pipe fixings like are supplied with the tunnel

[jambop]

I bought my tunnel this year from first tunnels & opted for their aluminium base rail, but I went for a scaffolding planked base to push the aluminium base rail onto as I was concerned I might damage the plastic whilst gardening ,so far so good, very neat, easy to level & fix to the uprights of the hoops with extra exhaust pipe fixings like are supplied with the tunnel

Lovely tunnel Snowdrops... hope I can do similar with mine although that one looks considerably longer than the one I am getting.
Yes these are the things I thought made the base rail a good option, although it does add a bit of cost but I think worth it.  I am going to put a pebble over weed suppressant fabric border around the tunnel to negate weeds. The tunnel I have has a buried cover and weeds are a pest.

[rowlandwells]

when we refurbished our poly tunnel this year with a new poly cover 2 new wooden doors one each end but as the hoops had been set in concrete when it was fist built we didn't need to do any alterations to those but we did put the cover on a base rail much neater than burying it in the ground  built removable benches in the tunnel and stronger top rail to hold the weight of hanging baskets and ground cover with washed gravel on top with slabs up the centre of the tunnel we also put shade netting over the poly sheet to stop the UV rays that has proved well worth doing 

don't forget to get your hot spot tape and a roll of Tunnel repair tape unless you've already got those