Bigger is better for pushing. Doing heavy dirt work, I would lean towards a Takeuchi TL12 (or TL250 or Tl150 used, all the same basic machine). Here's my Mustang MTL325(Tak 250). That job had a 2k yard cut, 8k yard fill, spread 1k of the cut and load out the other k. I replaced it with a Kubota SVL90-2, but a TL12 would have been fine as well. Went with Kubota because the dealer offered me $1300 less than I paid for
Discuss this in the forum topic What size machine do I need.