Now I can say I ran the wheels off of it

I was out trying to find front sheet metal parts for my daily driver when I heard a noise coming from the front of my beater truck so I stopped and looked and nothing looked out of place so I limped it off the highway and took the back ways home,to me it sounded like a wheel bearing taking a dump so I took it easy and made it about a mile from the house when the front end dropped so I figured the spindle broke and then I noticed the wheel in the other lane passing me with nothing attached. I am glad there was no one else on the road or it could have done some damage to another vehicle,I am glad I put my gloves and hat in the truck when I took off or it would have been a very cold walk home. No broken studs so the nuts backed off and and was able to put the spare on after I found some lug nuts in the garage and used a bumper jack to get the rotor off the ground,I checked the other three tires and they were kind of loose too so I will need to check them by hand instead of using the impact to tighten them up. The snow on the road lessened the possible damage to the truck damage and I ruined on of the original aluminum wheels and it mangled the fender,now this truck had had both drivers side wheels come off and the rear was mangled when I bought it.

I had it happen to me when I was a teenager. Was driving on 75 N going down the hill to Cincy, front driver side dropped, I hit the brakes, then I saw my tire/wheel go past me. It hit a half a dozen cars before it bounced over the guardrail and into the fence.

It is a scary thing. For quite a few years I've checked lug torque at the service intervals.

Are ya sure someone didnt loosen them up on ya?

I dont think anyone loosened them up as I had to get different lug nuts after I got it home and tightened them up with the impact and still needed to be tightened up more,when I changed the wheels around last month I just tightened them up with the impact and that was it. If anyone loosened them up it had to be at the junkyard I was at since I heard or felt nothing on the way there and have been driving it all week and it seemed ok.

I'm sure you know this already, but there may be some newbies who don't. When you install aluminum wheels, you should drive them on a short run until they heat up (from brake use) and then retightened once they have cooled back down.

I got in a hurry whan I installed them and I think the batteries in my cordless impact are getting weak,I usually torque the aluminum wheels on my convertible and wagon but did not even think about it on my beater truck. I am going to take the aluminum wheels off the convertible as they requre too much attention to keep clean.