I do not drive a lot at night, maybe 20 hours a year or so. I'm getting old and although I see just fine in the daylight, not so much at night.
A while back I had the headlights replaced with Hella H4 bulbs (not sure voltage/wattage) but they were yellow and I didn't much like them.
This last week I replaced those with two of these
They are definitely whiter but don't seem very strong (even with the high beams).

I may need to align the bulbs better. Is that a simple matter of shining the lights against the garage door and playing with the two screws on each headlamp ?

Given my requirements of brilliant white light and strong output can anyone recommend a different bulb ?
I don't want to blind oncoming traffic. Just maybe something similar to what a new car has.

Thanks (and Happy New Year !)

 

And HAPPY NEW YEAR to you! Good riddance 2020.
Before concentrating on different headlights have you installed a headlight relay harness? Without one your not getting the full voltage to your headlights.
http://cruiser54.com/?p=115

 

Yes I have (or had) one of these installed.

That was not such a simple thing because at one point one headlight was much dimmer than the other. I think that came down to a grounding issue.

 

So you got the harness issue resolved? If so you can try aligning them on a garage door as you mentioned. But I see the ad for your lights which I'm not at all familiar with says "The Philips Diamond Vision bulb does not offer a greater light output but provide a white light for enhanced styling .". If the ones you have just won't work for you maybe someone here will recommend some that will.
Are your Hella H4 ones like these? If so you could upgrade the bulbs.
http://rimiusa.com/index.php?main_pa...products_id=55

 

The Hella bulbs which I replaced say :

"Hella H4 12V 100/80W U Korea"

And looking at the they do not have a yellow tint to the glass itself.

 

I have a headlight aiming tool to level the lights out. Once done, I shine my lights on a wall to adjust left/right.

Just make sure you're on level ground (my driveway is pitched to run water away). It's a bit of trial and error but you can get it close enough.

 

I run either 80/100 or 55/100 Napa house brand H4s in those exact same AutoPal housings and a homemade harness, and they are plenty bright for my aging eyes. They're serious long distance deer spotters on the high beams and I never get flashed on the lows. To align them, I pull up close to the garage doors, put a piece of tape up to mark the center and cutoff, then back up about 25 feet and adjust so the cutoff is a few inches lower than the tape marks and the centers are the same side-side. Then, I tip the drivers side down and in just little more to help minimize lights in the faces of oncoming cars.

If I had to do it over again though, I'd probably go with one of the LED based housings.

 

Have you checked the voltage at the connectors to the headlights? 100w/80w should put out some serious light.

 

The guy who installed the harness has been our mechanic for 8 years or so and has a Cherokee of his own. But - he did have to call in his 'electrical guy' when that install didn't work right away.
Who knows...
Now having said that - we live in Mexico and I did see the bulbs before they were installed. They came out of small cardboard boxes and there is no saying that they were not used ??

If I had to drive in the dark every day - I would have to seriously do something. Maybe it is my eyes.

I've got a leak in the area of the washer fluid tank. Maybe I'll just ask him to look at the headlights again while he is at it.

Early in December he was complaining he had too much work :-)

Edit : That's a little scary. Down the bottom of this page is a "Related Thread" section and it is thread I started for this same issue in 2017...

 

Take a look at your headlight units. Do they look nice, shiney and reflective inside or are they dull or even possibly loosing the coating?

My units were still okay looking but weren't as reflective inside as they should be. I replaced my light units with Crystal light units. Not sure if they'd be named differently over there but the difference was night and day. The big difference on my originals and the new ones were the old ones used the glass to set the headlight pattern, whereas the new ones use the internal reflector same as all cars now.

 

You could have a couple of things going on besides whether the bulbs are getting sufficient voltage or current. Some mechanical, and some of "what works for your eyes".

On the "mechanical" side, how good are the lenses and reflectors? Plastic lenses usually deteriorate over time, yellowing, transmitting less light and dispersing what they do transmit. There are a couple of polishing-compound type products that can take off some of the surface oxidation, but my experience is that it usually returns soon, and new lenses may be a better solution. Also, what about the reflective bucket behind the bulbs? If that is damaged- dirty, oxidized, peeling- then you won't be getting everything out of your bulbs.

Your eyes may have "comfort preferences" that have little to do with how well the bulbs, reflectors, and lenses are performing. I prefer yellower, "warm white" light. I think that bluer, whiter light is more glaring and has poorer contrast, especially when roads are wet. If you look at the "color temperature" spec for the bulbs, yellower "warm white" bulbs are around 2700 kelvin, and blue "cool white" bulbs are around 5000 kelvin. Yeah, the "cool white" lights have higher color temperature. I really dislike the really bright blue HID bulbs with even higher color temperature. Your eyes may have a preference for a specific color temperature, and that may differ from everyone else's.

I've found that some lights can be "too bright", especially when the beam pattern sends a lot of light high, to be reflected by roadside trees, other vegetation, and especially reflective signs. This isn't necessarily a headlight alignment issue; when you have the lights adjusted for good range the reflector/lens/bulb combo may still send a lot of the light "high", to be reflected back in your face by close objects, and overwhelming what is reflected back from far down the road. Kind of like driving in fog with high beams.

I'm not a fan of the beam pattern of the LEDs that I've seen. Most reflector/lens combinations seem to not have enough down-range focus, and too much spread high and low. Good for floods at low speed or stationary, not so good for high-speed driving.

You may still have some mechanical / electrical issues with your lights, but it also sounds like you haven't found out what you like yet. You may need to experiment a bit with different bulbs, and brighter is not always better.

My $0.02. Hope this helps a bit.