You do NOT drive that fast thru deep water. He probably has an air filter box full of water. If they are lucky they did not get any water in the engine.
Same here, I hate wearing gloves when working on my vehicles. I have been working on cars & trucks for over 50 years & cannot count the amount of time I have been cut, scratched, burned, drew blood & even restored a couple rusty cars & have never had a problem. Even had to get stitches once from...
I am "old school", IMHO it is an unnecessary electrical add on. More electrical stuff, more stuff to break. Just turn on the wipers when it starts to rain like we used to do.
Your description of how the tires wore it sounds like they were underinflated which would cause more of the outside of the tires to wear more than the center.
Which tire brand was on it when you bought it Continentals? We had them on our Bronco Sport & was never thrilled with the noise they made on the highway. We replaced them at approximately 40K miles & went with BF Goodrich Trail Terrain A/T's & are happy with them.