I think the only large airplane I know of that is actually designed to land in a crab is a B-52.
Normally, "sideloading" the landing gear is a bad thing and is something to be avoided.
The normal technique taught in large aircraft that I've flown, (KC-135, DC-9, MD-11) is to keep the crab in until about 100 to 200 feet AGL then transition to a wing level landing. This is done be turning aileron into the wind and using opposite rudder to align the aircraft with the runway (basically cross-controlling the aircraft). The amount of the cross-control depends on the amount of crosswind. You are taught to land in a wing-level attitude even in a large crosswind so you don't scrape the bottom of an engine pod or side-load the gear...