Well interestingly the steel poles for my tent are 23mm with a 2mm wall thickness.
A problem with the larger Cabanon Biscaya range was not the diameter of the aluminium poles, which happened to be 28mm was that the poles would crack and split, as the pole wall thickness was just 1mm.
When Cabanon introduced the Awaya range, the aluminium poles again were 28mm but now with a wall thickness of 1.5mm, and Cabanon started using those thicker poles for the Biscaya models, and have been for quite some time, with no reports of poles splitting since.
Assuming we are talking about poles bent into an arc here. Whilst all things being equal, 12.5mm poles will be stronger than 11mm, BUT, there's always a but, they are stiffer, and you may find forcing them to bend into what is a comfortable arc for more flexible 11mm poles actually strains them too much and they may be more inclined to fail! You would also be putting more load on the anchor points, which also may be inclined to fail, possibly ripping from flysheet/groundsheet depending on tent construction.
Too many unknowns to be definitive, they may work perfectly well if not over strained by size of arc, I think you'd have to try them and see if they 'felt' OK, but potentially they may also be pushed too far and have a short life! Don't forget any wind distorting the tent also adds to the load they come under.
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Topic: Pole Diameter?
