I always lay some belting down on bare steel . Anything bigger than a 50 ton crawler has to drop all its counterweight . Then they wont tip backwards and they will crawl on to the bed without standing on end. Loading with counterweight on can be dicy you need to know the machine ,they also want to squat back on the counterweight when crawling on the best of ramps. When i can ill leave an extra 10' section of boom on the heel or even 20' sometimes its not usually a problem with the lenght as we always have a booster on the back end. Keep boomed down low and block the back end of the bed with the front of the bed on the ground . That way you can swing around and come off frontwards ,rattling off backwards can be disastrous too. If the machine has a torque engage it in the direction of travel and leave it there dont try and feather it . you ll roll a bit quick as the slack in the chains and tracks tightens up. Then at a low idle use one of the hoist frictions to stall the torque as you roll off . Go dead slow ,do nothing fast as you tip and you will come off smooth. Saying that, some machines can steer off a bit then just let them roll free,it wont be pretty but but you get off ok. Im speaking from hundreds of trips on and off lowbeds ,seems easy to me . If you cant get some experienced help to load and your concerned run your drag cable thru the fairlead thru a snatch block to the back of the lowbed and pull your self on. Ive done that with poor travelers . Keep your boom low, set some decent blocking to crawl up on and put belting between any bare steel.
