I have an 85XJ and I was pretty much accepting that the headlights were not going to be that great from what I have read. High beam seemed ok but low was awful.

The other night I was driving home in some moderate fog and notices I could see the beams quite well and was surprised at what I saw. On low beam the driver side headlight was aimed at the edge of the road on the passenger side, and the passenger side headlight was aimed near the center line of the highway. Both of the hot spots of the light beam hit the road about 50 feet in front of the Jeep. On high beam the light beams seemed to converge at about 100 feet in front of me, almost directly in front of the Jeep at about eye level.

In the garage I measured them on the wall and the center of the bright spots at about 8 feet away were narrower than the centers of the headlights.

I haven't been able to find an alignment guide yet, but I did take it out to a 1/4 mile level one lane stretch on the drive into my parents house and adjusted so that on low beam the passenger side hot spot is about 70 feet out and at the passenger side of the road and the driver side hotspot is about the same distance and directly in front of the headlight, not crossing the center line of the highway. Checked it by sitting in another vehicle a few hundred feet out to make sure it wouldn't blind anyone.

Definitely can see better on low beams and way better on high beams now.

Just wondering if those are close to what they should be or am I still being rather conservative with where I have them aimed? Don't want to blind anyone(probably unlikely with the stock headlights) but want as much visibility as possible. Does anyone know of a good guide to aiming headlights?

 

It might be...At 25', the width between centers is the same as the centers on the Jeep. Then the height of the center spot is 6" below a horizontal line the height of your center from the ground. Then they both are 10" right of what would be center if they were dead straight ahead. EDIT...I might have that backwards, (10" below, and 6" right)

You will find different things googleing it, but the one like that is the one that made sense to me.

If you get really serious about nailing it right, be sure to check the tire pressure, carry a normal load, and even have someone sit in the drivers seat!

 

http://danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

 

This was the page I had found several years ago but could not find again. Thanks.

 

Going by what kstopp posted below, it seems you are also a little on the conservative side like me. Any headlights less than 40" off the ground can be aimed 3.5" down at 25 feet.

I think I am still low on the spec, but at least now the lights are not crossing the beams. As we all know crossing the beams.. that would be bad.

 

I guess this is the one I found that I liked, 10 over and 6" down at 25'.

 

That looks pretty easy to follow.

Once I get them lined up correctly I will have just one more thing to fix. The dimmer switch will hit the back of the steering wheel if I try to dim the lights when going around a curve. The clearance is good when driving straight ahead, but when making a turn sometimes I can dim the lights, other times it won't pull back far enough to click over to dim. Worst is a few times it will stick between high and low and the lights go completely off, then click again and they are back on bright. I just remember to dim before going around a curve right now. Is there any type of adjustment on the switch or lever?

Honestly I am thinking about moving the switch to the floor, where it belongs anyhow.