Markf,
I cant help you with the wheel bearing problem but the tire wear out problem reminds me of when I was younger and my dad got a new 72 Monte Carlo 454, he bought it because he liked the color, he had no clue what the 454 meant, well long story short he never did figure out why the rear tires only lasted 7k miles. Before he passed away we told him of the saturday night drags and the neutral slams. He got a big kick out of it the story though.