tips for aiming headlights

A good set of H4 lamps still does great at night compared to most sealed beams. Key word is "good"; there are lots of H4 conversion lamps on the market. Even if you disregard the no-name Chinese junk that's all over the internet and look only at reputable-brand lights (Cibie, Bosch, or Hella -- Carello and Marchal are no longer made) there's still a wide range of performance. See here (also scroll down to post #9 in that same thread).