Series of noises - grinding, whirring, and steady knocking from front end. 18 Silverado 1500

[mcr217]

I recently changed rotors and pads on the front end and started hearing a grinding (metal to metal) sound at random times and intervals in short "bursts". I envision my calipers scraping the rotors when I hear it. It makes me cringe and it's most frequent going up hills and/or around 20-30 MPH. Brake dust shield scraping rotor(s) maybe? I will be taking the wheels off this weekend.

Shortly after this began, my cheap tires- says the mechanic- (or less than a year old bearings) started whirring. I rotated these turds, the tires that is, when I changed the brakes and rotors. At the same time, I began hearing a faint thud-like knocking (like someone knocking on the door over and over) that increases in frequency as I speed up, and slows down as I slow down, but completely goes away under braking. Wheel bearings?

I'm going nuts because I've taken it to my usual mechanic when I heard the scraping, which he didn't hear so I was clearly wasting his time, and then to a chevy dealership when I heard the knocking and whirring. They claimed the whirring is tire noise, which I could believe but it came on suddenly- as in, I drove home from work and didnt hear it, then went to work the next morning and heard it clear as day. They also didn't hear the knocking on 2 different road tests, which is a crock.

I've looked under the truck for a good 10 minutes looking for loose, leaking parts to no avail. This was before the knocking and whirring, but I hope to get it up on stands and pull stuff apart this weekend. Any suggestions or ideas?

 

[Snowcamo]

It does resemble the hubs going bad.