Hello - I have a 06' Ranger 2WD with General Grabber tires that have about 30,000 miles on them and still show significant tread remaining.

Within the last 2 months, I have experienced excessive tire noise - like I am driving a Humvee or something. Also, when I turned right or left the tires would make even MORE noise - it seemed to be coming from the right front tire mostly. 2 weeks ago I had the tires rotated and the sound seems to have reduced while turning but I still have the howling Humvee noise while driving down the road. There is no vibration coming from the wheel, so I don't think it's a balancing issue. Could it be the bearings?

I also checked the PSI all around and one tire does have a slow leak but I try to keep to topped off.

Any thoughts?

 

Could well be a bad wheel bearing. You would need to jack each wheel up, grab the tire top and bottom and rock the wheel to feel for any play. Also rotate the wheel by hand and feel for any roughness as it turns. Then spin the wheel and listen for any rumble sound.
It can be difficult sometimes to identify which wheel bearing is bad unless it shows up in excessive play.