I just watched a couple of Youtube videos by Milo Manx about changing ride height with the existing stock spring plates. The long video is about 30 minutes and the short one is about 20 minutes.
I have considered doing this but I've been a little leery of the spring plate flying off and taking part of me with it. He made the video on a Meyers Manx which appears to be about 30% lighter than a beetle, and claims there is an equivalent reduction in the tension on the plate as a result, making it less likely that the thing will fly off and decapitate me or one of our three dogs.
He makes it look pretty straightforward, changing from a protractor in the first video to a Johnson electronic angle indicator in the second to set the plate at the right angle after resetting the torsion bar. There is a chart in an old thread somewhere on this forum that relates the spline adjustments to the resulting height .
My car sits slightly higher on the passenger side than the drivers side which he says is correct to adjust for the difference in the crown of most rodes. Makes some sense.
I could probably get the height adjustment I want by simply swapping out my Veredesteins for a lower profile tire, but I kind of like the tires I have.
What are the pro's and cons of using the existing spring plates, getting new adjustable ones, or just swapping out tires?