Okay, so when I turn right at slow speeds my front end creaks/squeaks. The sound seems to be coming from the left wheel area. I lubed all the grease fittings but I do that every 2500 miles anyway so I was pretty sure those were good. As expected, the noise continued.

I figured it was the control arms but logged on here and read that it could be the wheel bearing. I jacked up the truck and sure enough, the wheel wobbles back and forth when I grab the top and bottom and rock it. I jacked up my dad's new Tahoe as a reference and it was rock solid-- no movement whatsoever.

Questions-- Is the wheel bearing most likely the issue?? Or, could it be something else? Should I do both or is that wasteful? Truck only has 55,000 miles and is stock... this seems rather premature. Thoughts?

Its a shot wheel bearing. On one occasion I did see one where somebody didn't tighten the lug nuts and the wheel was wobbling like mad. It ended up fubaring the wheel bearing and it took a new hub anyway. Those wheel bearings don't last even if they live a life of pavement.

Yep, mine went out right over the 50,000 mile mark. I opted to change the one bad bearing, but about 10,000 miles later the other one went. I was also surprised they went out so soon.

Questions-- Is the wheel bearing most likely the issue?? Or, could it be something else? Should I do both or is that wasteful? Truck only has 55,000 miles and is stock... this seems rather premature. Thoughts?
Read this http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=232878&highlight=heat POST #12, including the links.
And, yes, you did diagnose it correctly.

Thanks guys-- I'm taking it to my indy tomorrow. He's a trusted friend but I still like to have some idea what the problem is. The guys at worked jacked it up again today. We grabbed the wheel at 3 and 9 and rocked it back a forth. There was TONS of play that direction too. Grabbing it at 12 and 6 caused wobbling but grabbing it at 3 and 9 caused LOTS of movement. So I'm guess that means a wheel bearing and a tie rod.

Just replaced mine as well on the drivers side. I don't think grabbing at "3 & 9 oclock works. Both mine had movement there. But you do grab at 12 and 6 oclock to check. My bearing was $301 and was not hard at all to change. SUGGESTION. Read on this site about cleaning your brake slide while wheel is off. Very helpful