Headlight help

[btfury]

I know this stuff has been covered a lot, but I've read a bunch of stuff and only managed to confuse myself more.

I'm getting ready to go on a pretty extended road trip soon and will be driving at night a lot so I'd like to upgrade my stock headlights (they suck pretty big time)... I'd like to do this on the cheap, and I have no experience with electrical stuff at all, so I'd rather buy an upgraded wiring harness than make one.

What do I need to do/what housings or bulbs or whatever? I have no idea where to start with this...

 

[btfury]

also, anyone ever use this?

http://www.eautoworks.com/product-eAutoWorkscom-189849.htm

 

[Talyn]

Search this has been covered a lot.

 

[89xj]

what year?

i found on my 89 that new/upgraded battery cables and red top battery was all i needed to make the headlights brighter.

IMHO, before you do any headlight upgrade, you need to take a voltage reading at the headlight harness to see if your getrting 12v.

 

[btfury]

2000

 

[crazydave]

Not sure of the 2000 xj but on my '95 the stock headlights were 35w so I first replaced them with 55w Sylvania Extra-Vision...a cheap way to start. But like the others I finally changed my battery cables to 0 gage using the old 4 gage as my new ground wire. Then I bought IPF headlights and fatboys lamps H-4's and used two relays to handle everything, but it does help to have a 170 amp powermaster Alt. It would be best to have a plan instead of doing it my way buying stuff then end up changing other stuff.

 

[crazydave]

I wished I used that harness...instead of building one. good find.

 

[hubs97xj]

Cheapest way to better headlights.

Larger relays than the EAAutoworks harness. I replaced the fusible links with fuseholders/fuses. Cost another 10 bucks with fuses and splices.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H4-9...c0.m245&_trkparms=65:12|39:1|72:1205|240:1318

Autopal Housings/bulbs. Wish I'd gone higher wattage, but even the stock is good. High beams are impressive for 60W. I rarely use them, because that much light coming from such a cheap setup makes me think something's about to catch fire.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/79-0...e309&_trksid=p4506.m20.l1116#ebayphotohosting

Pretty much the exact same stuff covered in every thread on the topic. You can get some better components (Cibie or Hella housings, Painless wiring, build an overkill 10AWG harness, expensive higher wattage bulbs, etc), but this is the budget upgrade. Keep in mind that if you have factory fogs or DRL, you might have problems that require minor modifications to the wiring. That has also been covered, don't be afraid to search.