Single pole tents – fixed or adjustable pole?

I have to go with adjustable, because I’m short, and 105cm is my normal pole length for hiking, while 115-125cm seems to be the length for shelter pitching. I recently bought a Zpacks Duplex that I’m using a set of adjustable trekking poles to pitch for that reason.

I find adjustable poles are better at dealing with less than perfect sites.  Obviously you can vary the height of a fixed pole somewhat by angling it, but I find often that is not enough, and a drastic angle can affect the pitch.  I have replaced my fixed length trekking poles with adjustables for this reason.

I’ve just used fixed, but I can see how adjustable has it’s advantages

sometimes I put a rock under it to make it longer

Use an adjustable with my mid. Would not want to be stuck with fix length.

Adjustable all the way.

Place me in the “adjustable” camp.  Having said that, I ordered the carbon fixed length poles from ZPacks when I bought my Solplex.  Even though I carry adjustable trekking poles, I did not want to take the tent down every morning when I pulled the trekking poles for hiking.  As Jerry stated, sometimes it’s necessary to boost the length a little with a rock or piece of bark using the fixed poles, but not a big deal.  It would be possible to get a slightly tauter pitch with adjustables.

Easy enough to make any fixed pole adjustable, by using a short length of suitable tube and drill though holes every 25mm or every inch and use a spare tent peg or nail to keep the raised position, will naturally need a suitable foot on the adjustable section

So far my ideal single pole 3 season tent is the Tarptent AEON Li .

And for that tent I would definitely want my adjustable hiking pole in it.  (WITH the handle up using the TT adaptor.)