Hiking poles at an angle supporting tents

If you put a downward force on a vertical pole, then the pole is directly opposing that force. It can resist it and is stable.

Whereas if you put a downwards force on an angle poke, the pole is not directly opposing that force. The pole wants to tilt more as you push down on it, so you end up with some of that downwards force being converted to sideways force. As the pole is more angle it becomes more inclined to collapse sideways (or have the tip slip out) and less able to resist the downwards force.

So a mild angle is usually fine – such as shifting over the tip by 6″ – but if you need to use a lot of length and are shifting it over by a foot or more than you are meaningfully reducing the stability of the shelter.

Fabric stress will depend on the individual tent. Primarily any stress should be placed inline with the seams. Set “improperly” or rather unconventionally, wind force may be the biggest factor. Nylon and poly have some give. DCF, Ultra, not so much. Your lines will have some stretch. Don’t go he-man on them. Tights tight. Too tight is too tight. Not to be overly concerned. It’s a tent. Use it as you need it.

Thank you. this is what I thought, but my thinking is not always the best.

Neither is mine.

I would typically angle my trekking pole a bit when setting up my Gatewood Cape because if it started to sag for any reason all I had to do to tighten things up was to slide the pole handle in a bit to make it more vertical.  It always worked well for me.

Because my NOTCH Li inner tent is so narrow I angle the trekking pole tips  about 3 inches out from vertical to get all the possible floor width. (My handles are up in the tent peaks, Velcroed in Tarptent’s optional handle pockets) This is B/C the floor has small loops that go around the pole tips  to hold the floor width in place.

This slight angle does not bother the strength of the structure, especially B/C I always deploy the peak guy lines on either side by each door. Better to spend 2 minutes on these guys when setting up than getting outside at Zero Dark Thirty when a wind blows up – with rain, natch.