Is a compact or small wheel loader (Cat 918 or 924) better than a compact track loader (Cat 299) for building a long driveway and parking area? I have a 10-acre property that I'm adding a 200-foot gravel driveway to, as well as a 20,000 sft parking area. I'll be moving about 300 yards of of dirt from around the property to the new graded areas. Just scraping the surface from a few acres.
Vote for big skid steer with a bucket & dozer attachment, small loader would tough & slower for grading. Might want plan to add a rental soil compactor
I vote no to the dozer attachment. They operate very poorly on skid steers and CTL's unless you had a Case Mintaur. They are expensive and way more machine than you need. You can do a much better job with just a bucket. A 200' driveway is nothing and 300yds. material isn't much either. I think a skid steer or CTL with a 6' or wider bucket would be ideal. You want both a smooth and tooth bucket. A 299 is overkill. A compact wheel loader isn't very good for leveling large area's. A SS or CTL let's you see exactly what the bucket edge is doing. Without seeing the terrain I'd guess you could do the driveway and parking area in a few days to a week depending how proficient you are as an operator. No sense buying a way bigger machine than you need. I could do that work with my 5' wide skid steer. What would help is to rent/buy a dump truck or dump trailer if you have to move material longer distances. I bought an older tandem dump truck for $8K for off road work. It carries a lot more and was cheaper than a dump trailer. I could sell it and get my money back but I need it for developing a new property. A single axle dump would be ideal for you.
it's a rental ? 299 a blade to crown the road is fine for light work pushing dirt ,baserock ,level grade same as a skiplaoder. Hell Minotaur is the boss spent Daddys money I can melt down a jd 350 4in1 loader rebuild it new have 200k for hookers & coke & never hear it start
For the cost of a dozer blade and the limited jobs it can do it's not worth buying one. There are several posts about how poorly dozer blades work on skid steers. They're OK for snow or very loose material but for leveling you can do a better job with a bucket.
If you had 60K - 80K to spend, I would pick up a Mini Excavator (like a Kubota, Deere 50, Takeuchi TB240/260) with thumb and a couple of buckets for clearing and scrapping (4' cleanout, and digging bucket), and a CTL (Takeuchi/Kubota) with a couple of buckets (Smooth bucket and tooth bucket) for clearing, scraping, hauling, and back blading. Avoid the dump truck, trailer thing. The CTl is fast and can haul a lot of yards fast. Not all excavated dirt and land clearing is useful. You will need to buy gravel and topsoil I'm sure. Have it delivered and dumped close to where you need it. Rent a Roller for the driveway/parking area base.
The wheel loader will carry a 1¾-2 yard bucket, will move fairly fast, will take care of your compaction if operated correctly, and has a comfortable ride and great visibility but will find every soft spot. The CTL will likely carry less then 1 yard, moves slower, but can carry almost any attachment available and becomes a Swiss army knife. If you're renting try both and see what you prefer. If buying, I'd recommend a CTL based on the info provided. And don't let the nay-sayers discourage you on a dozer blade attachment for a CTL. They have a steep learning curve but work great when you have a few hours on them.
I vote for a CTL with a 4n1 bucket, teeth on the front edge which give you 2 smooth edges for the finishing work. Easy peasy when you figure out how to work it.
Finding soft spots is actually great when found before the gravel is laid out and can be rectified immediately.
If you need to move material a long distance a CTL one bucket at a time is painfully slow if you need more than about 10 buckets full . 10 acres is a pretty big area if you're hauling from one end to the other. I used to be on 10 acres.