my dad and I were driving down i71 when I was a kid in his old Beetle when the front tire came off, The car balanced (rear engine) and the front drum never touched the ground till right before we came to a stop. He opened the door and the tire rolled right up to the car. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see i myself. tires will always fall off the left side. The centrifugal force loosens that side.

Puder
 

With Aluminum wheels you need to retorque after 100 miles. The older style wheels have softer alum. and it causes the lugs to back off after it compresses.

This is one reason why NASCAR uses steel wheels.

Wannabe

That's happened to me before but it was because the dumba$$ that replaced my tires forgot to tighten the lug nuts. You are very lucky. If you tightened them, and are positive that they were tight, I suspect foul play. I think we should get Troutly involved so that a full investigation can be made into this matter. :D

"Puder, honey, is it supposed to be this soft?" -Babs, Animal House, 1978

Damn Pit Crew!!!

:D:D:D

I think he was just trying to 'shave' some weight off the truck, and he got the bright idea for a quick and easy way to take some material off the rotors. :D

hahah
actually i though i cut could down on rotating mass by removing half of teh lugs. 3 is enough!!!!

I had one fly off the boat trailer once at about 60mph, on a two lane road. Someone had loosened the lugs on both wheels on that side. It actually sheered off all five studs. These were aluminum rims, and I thought about them loosening themselves, but this was only a few miles from the ramp when this happened, and I came to find out some of my adversaries from back in IJSBA racing days got ahold of the lugs and backed them off. We were very lucky not to have killed someone. CheckmateF1 and I took the drum to Pep Boys and were back on the road it 2 hours.

Also, once on my crotch-rocket, I saw the wheel/tire of a crane (big industrial crane, wheel/tire was about 4 feet tall, 18 inches wide) come loose on the 495 Beltway. The wheel/tire hit the jersey wall at probably 50-60mph, flew straight up into the air, and over my direction of traffic, pretty much over my head, and off the other side of the Potomac River American Legion Bridge down about 100 feet.

Hmmmm.....wheels of misfortune!

One time my friend's car got stolen out of his driveway while he was doing a Brake job!!! We ran out of daylight and were going to finish in the morning. We wanted to leave the front end up and on the jack stands, but his Dad made us put the wheels back on the car "just in case it fell because there are always kids around" So we did put them on the car and put the Lug nut's on finger tight and still left it jacked up!! Well that night it got stolen and they backed it off the Jack stands and got over 70 miles away before one of the wheels fell off!! (They were Steel Wheels)

That was over 10 years ago and I still can't believe it!!

Puder,

Consider yourself lucky you weren't hurt. I used to work at a Ford Dealership and saw many a cars being towed in for wheels falling off. Most people weren't as lucky as you were.
Merry Christmas