Originally Posted by LadySashya

Problem resolved....though still don't know what caused it. This has taken up SO much of my time and has been very frustrating, but I thank everyone for their advice here. I tried replacing both bulbs but ended up having to replace both wires too (had to wait for O'Reilly's to get another one in stock, apparantly they only stock one at a time??? Weird). After that, I still had no power to the trailer plug...I checked every fuse and even replaced the one under the hood that said "trailer" just in case, even though it appeared and tested fine and I used my meter too. Just no "juice" to it for some reason and I didn't feel like hunting down the the wiring when MSCC8541 had suggested using the by-pass kit (post above) that sounded like the way to go! I got that installed and went to test the light bar with it...I had power! Yeah! Not so fast....When I had the lights on, it was a solid bar, but it stayed solid and the turn signal feature didn't work, nor did the brake light feature. ARGH! I went back to AutoZone where I'd bought it and I backed up to the front door so they could come out and check it but the guys were already standing at the door and said when I put the brake on as I was backing up, the right turn signal on the light strip was activated (not on the trucks tail light itself though). This made no sense at all. The bypass kit wires right into the tail lights and they worked fine, I did the wiring right, so why was the light bar acting so odd?? I asked if they had another in stock and we could try another new one to narrow this down. If it worked ok, I'd swap out for it. If it did the same thing, I was stumped. Well...new one did the exact same thing. No one at Auto Zone could figure it out. I returned the damn thing and almost gave up completely, then I decided to see if O'Reilly's ever got any back in stock (they didn't have any at first which is why I bought from AZ) They had one (49", not the 60" I wanted but I wasn't picky at this point!) and we tried it first in the parking lot. That one worked just fine...SOLD! I installed it right there and it's functioning just fine still. I'm SO glad this mess is over with.....but I'm still curious about two things. What in the hell made that first (and the second new one just like it) act so oddly?? It was a Bully brand one. And the other thing is that when I was splicing on the plug for the new wires for the license plate, let me tell ya, not only was the plastic all melted around the bulb, but the copper wire for the pos. end was all blackened too....what could have caused such an overload? Should I be worried about electrical problems? And why wouldn't that much power/heat have tripped the fuse?
Again, thanks to everyone for your advice and support...I'm so glad I found this forum!!