If the headlights are normal 5.75" four headlight inserts, you may be able to replace them with aftermarket European standard headlight inserts, by quality manufacturers such as Hella, Cibie or Narva. Something like what is shown on Daniel Stern's website, here:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/p.../products.html . They are usually available at most auto supply shops - here in Oz, at Autobarn, Repco or Supercheap Auto. I had a set of Hella four headlight inserts on an old Mazda I once owned. The centre main beam lights were their 'long range driving beam inserts', and it was the only car of many that I've owned that I didn't either run driving lights on, or wish for better headlights! They were excellent for driving on twisty rural roads at night, although you had to watch out for wildlife on the road. Compared to the standard Mazda (Stanley brand) sealed beam headlights, it was like night and day! I would point you to Hella's Australian website, but it is extremely slow today, for some reason! So here are the Narva (owned by Philips) equivalents:
http://www.narva.com.au/ForwardLighting_20.html and
http://www.narva.com.au/ForwardLighting_21.html .
If you can't replace the lights with those sort of inserts, then driving lights are the answer. I used to run a set of Cibie Ocar Plus driving lights on my Alfetta 2000 sedan, and they were superb, but even smaller driving lights should be OK - just go for the brands I mentioned, or good quality Japanese driving lights like PIAA or IPF. The Oscars Pluses used to - just - fit behind the bumper of the Alfetta, and I used adjustable hose clamps (straightened out) at the top of the lamps to steady and adjust them. Cibie also make lamp steady bars which are useful for large lamps. Just make sure you specify driving lights, not fog lights. Most US brands are fairly ordinary for headlights and driving lights, I've found - sorry, you Americans! Daniel Stern, who is a US car lighting expert who has advised their government about headlights, agrees with me! Some larger driving lights give you a choice of beams - 'spot' or 'pencil' beams, and 'driving' 'spread' or 'wide' beams. It's usually best to go for wide beam, or spread beam, driving lights, rather than pencil or spot beam lights, for most driving. Spot beam lights just light up the road itself at very long range, whereas spread beam lamps, usually designated 'driving lights' give you distance and spread, so that you can see things (like wildlife, or domestic pets) to the side off the road. Spot beams are really only necessary for rallying, or on very long straight roads at high speeds, and are ALWAYS used in conjunction with spread beam lights. Some Australian drivers go for one spread beam and one driving beam, but personally, I always go for two spread beam, or driving beam, driving lights.
And finally, the other thing that you can do to improve the light output from almost any headlights, is to install heavier wiring and relays. On a late model (1998) Honda, I found that 2 volts was being lost between the battery and the headlight bullbs - roughly 15%, and the car was almost straight off the showroom floor when I measured them. According to Hella, that means that the lights are only putting out about 53% of the light that they are capable of. When I installed a headlight loom with heavier duty wiring and relays, the light improved spectacularly, and yes, it did look twice as bright! Daniel Stern gives some excellent advice on how to do it yourself here:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html . If you can't do that, some manuafacturers sell plug-in wiring looms to upgrade your headlights, in some countries. Hella, Piranha and ARB manufacture them in Australia. Here in Oz, 4WD equipment sellers such as ARB, TJM or Opposite Lock sell them. ARB also sell in the USA - see
http://www.arbusa.com/ , and in other countries, including the UK.
You shouldn't need a new alternator, unless your current one is faulty. That won't provide any increase in light. (I have an electrical engineering qualification, so you can trust what I say!) The other thing which may be of use is to upgrade the bulbs to modern high performance bulbs. These generally use Xenon high pressure gas in the globes. Go for high quality manuafacturers such as Philips, Narva, Cibie, Hella, Osram or Bosch, not Asian rubbish in flashy packaging, which promises a lot, but usually fails to deliver. The better manufacturers often market theirs as "Plus 50" or "Plus 30", indicating that they perform 30% or 50% better than equivalent power globes, at about 75 metres from the car on high beam. See
http://www.narva.com.au/Globes_21.html .
Regards,
Don