Choosing the Best Skid Steer Attachment for Leveling Ground
If you have ever tried to grade a large area with a standard skid steer bucket, you know the struggle. It is the operator’s version of a cruel joke. You think you have it smooth, but as soon as you back up and look at your work, it looks like a washboard. You dip the bucket to fix a high spot, dig too deep, create a hole, and then spend the next twenty minutes chasing that hole across the job site.
It’s known as the “Operator’s Waddle”—that rhythmic bouncing of the machine caused by uneven ground, which only makes the ground more uneven as you drive over it.
The hard truth is that while a skid steer is the most versatile machine on earth, the standard bucket is a terrible grading tool. It’s designed to carry, not to smooth.
If you want to turn a lumpy, rock-filled lot into a golf-course-ready lawn, or turn a cratered gravel driveway into a highway, you need to change the tool on the front. This guide will walk you through the heavyweights of ground leveling: The Land Plane, The Power Rake (Harley Rake), The Box Blade, and The Dozer Blade.
We aren’t just reading specs here; we are going to look at which one actually puts money in your pocket and saves your sanity.
The Passive Hero: The Land Plane (Grading Bar)
Let’s start with the simplest, most indestructible tool in the shed: The Land Plane. You might hear it called a “grading bar,” a “leveler,” or a “driveway plane.”
At first glance, it looks underwhelming. It’s essentially a square steel frame with two angled cutting edges inside. No hoses, no cylinders, no spinning parts. But do not let the simplicity fool you. For 80% of general grading tasks, this is the best tool for the money.
How It Works The magic of the land plane is in its geometry. As you drive forward (or backward), the front blade shaves off the high spots. That material flows over the blade and accumulates in the box. As you pass over a low spot (a pothole or rut), the material falls out of the box and fills the void.
It is a “cut and fill” machine that works automatically. Because the frame is long and flat, it prevents the skid steer from dipping into holes. It forces the machine to ride level.
The “Human” Experience Running a land plane is relaxing. You don’t need “high flow” hydraulics. You don’t even need to hook up hoses. You just drop the boom, put the machine in “float” mode (more on that later), and drive.
-
Best For: Gravel driveway maintenance. It is the undisputed king of fixing potholes. It doesn’t just fill them; it cuts to the bottom of the pot hole to remove the “memory” of the hole so it doesn’t return in a week.
-
The Downside: It cannot move massive piles of dirt. It is a finishing tool, not an earthmover. If you have to move 100 yards of clay from the front yard to the back, use a bucket first, then the plane.
The Aggressive Specialist: The Power Rake (Soil Conditioner)
If the Land Plane is a hand plane, the Power Rake (often called by the brand name Harley Rake) is a belt sander. This is a powered attachment that uses the skid steer’s auxiliary hydraulics to spin a carbide-toothed drum.
The Mechanics of the Mix The drum spins at high speed, usually in the opposite direction of your travel. As it spins, the carbide teeth chew into the soil, pulverizing hard clay and tearing up sod. But here is the genius part: It separates the rocks.
The drum acts like a barrier. The fluffy, pulverized soil passes over the drum, while heavy rocks and debris are kicked forward. By angling the rake to the left or right, you can “windrow” the rocks to the side, leaving behind a bed of pure, sifted soil.
Why Landscapers Love It If you are prepping a lawn for sod or seed, this is the only tool that matters. A land plane might leave the ground hard; a power rake fluffs it up by aerating the top 2-3 inches. This “seedbed” is critical for grass growth.
-
The “Velcro” Effect: Wet soil is the enemy of the power rake. If the ground is muddy, the soil will stick to the drum, turning it into a useless slick tire. This is a dry-weather tool.
-
Maintenance Reality: This tool has moving parts. Chains, bearings, and hydraulic motors. It requires grease, maintenance, and eventually, expensive repairs. You have to charge your customers accordingly when using it.
The Earth Mover: The Dozer Blade
Sometimes, you don’t need to finesse the dirt; you need to bully it.
Skid steers are not bulldozers. They rely on tires (or rubber tracks), which don’t have the traction of a D6 dozer’s steel cleats. However, a 6-way Dozer Blade attachment can turn a large track loader into a surprisingly capable mini-dozer.
The Geometry of Pushing A standard bucket pushes dirt in a straight line. Eventually, the bucket fills up, and you lose traction. A dozer blade is angled. This allows the dirt to “roll” off the side of the blade, keeping the load light enough that the machine keeps moving.
When to Use It This is for “rough grading.” If you are backfilling a foundation, cutting a brand new road through a hillside, or pushing massive piles of fill dirt, the dozer blade wins. It is built to take the impact of hidden rocks and roots that would twist a lighter attachment.
-
The Limitation: It takes a skilled operator. Unlike the land plane, which stabilizes itself, the dozer blade goes exactly where you point it. If you dip the nose, you gouge a trench. If you lift too high, you leave a mound. It requires a steady hand and a lot of focus.
The Old Reliable: The Box Blade
The Box Blade is a staple of the tractor world, but it has a place on skid steers too. It is similar to a land plane but has a solid back wall.
The “Carry” Factor The land plane lets dirt flow through it. The box blade captures it. This makes it excellent for moving material over a short distance. Let’s say you have a pile of gravel at the start of a driveway and you need to spread it 50 feet down. A land plane would struggle to drag that volume. A box blade drags the whole pile, allowing you to lift slightly and “feather” it out as you drive.
Most skid steer box blades nowadays come with laser control compatibility. This is the high-tech frontier. You can set up a laser transmitter on the site, and the box blade will automatically adjust its height up and down millimeters at a time to create a perfectly flat pad for concrete pouring.
The Secret Sauce: “Float” Mode and Technique
Buying the attachment is only half the battle. You have to know how to run it. The biggest secret to leveling ground with a skid steer is a feature found on almost every machine, yet rarely understood by rookies: The Float Function.
What is Float? Hydraulics are usually rigid. If you set the boom at 2 feet high, it stays at 2 feet high. If the machine drives over a bump, the boom goes up with the machine, lifting the attachment off the ground. “Float” opens the hydraulic valves, allowing the boom to move up and down freely, following the contours of the land solely by the weight of the attachment.
The Technique
- Engage Float: For a land plane or power rake, lower the boom until the attachment touches the ground, then push the control (usually a detent on the pedal or joystick) into “Float.” You will feel the machine settle.
- Speed Kills: Grading is not a race. If you drive too fast, the attachment will bounce. Slow down. Let the tool do the work.
- The “Y” Turn: Never turn sharply while the grading attachment is in the ground. It creates ridges and ruts. Lift the attachment, make your turn, line up your next pass, and drop it again.
- Angle of Attack: Don’t just drive in straight lines parallel to the property line. Drive diagonally. Then drive diagonally the other way. By crossing your patterns, you slice off the ridges left by the previous pass. This is how you get that “table-top” flat finish.
The Decision Matrix: Which One Do You Need?
Let’s break this down by job type and budget.
Scenario A: The Gravel Driveway Owner / Maintenance Contractor
-
The Pick: Land Plane (Grading Bar).
-
Why: It is indestructible, costs $1,500 – $3,000 (relatively cheap), and fixes potholes better than anything else. It has no moving parts to break. It’s a “buy it once, use it forever” tool.
Scenario B: The Landscape Installer
-
The Pick: Power Rake (Harley Rake).
-
Why: You need to make money on sod and seed. The finish this tool leaves is a product you can sell. It removes the manual labor of hand-raking rocks. Yes, it costs $8,000+, but it replaces a crew of three laborers.
Scenario C: The Site Developer / Builder
-
The Pick: Dozer Blade or Laser-Ready Box Blade.
-
Why: You are moving volume. You need to cut raw earth and establish drainage swales. The finesse of a rake is wasted here; you need the brute force of a blade.
The ROI Conversation
Attachments are expensive. It is painful to drop $9,000 on a power rake. But you have to view it through the lens of efficiency.
If you are grading a 10,000-square-foot lawn with a bucket, it might take you 8 hours to get it “good enough,” and you will still have to have guys on the ground with hand rakes picking up rocks. With a power rake, that same job takes 2 hours, and the rocks are gone.
You just saved 6 hours of machine run time (fuel, depreciation) and 6 hours of labor. If your machine rate is $100/hr and labor is $25/hr, you saved roughly $750 on a single job. The attachment pays for itself in 12 jobs. After that, it’s pure profit.
Conclusion: Stop Fighting the Dirt
There is a deep satisfaction in looking back at a piece of land that is perfectly flat, with water draining exactly where it should, and the soil fluffed and ready for life. You cannot achieve that satisfaction by fighting the ground with a bucket.
The bucket is for moving. The grading attachment is for finishing.
Whether you choose the humble, passive land plane or the high-tech, hydraulic power rake, the result is the same: You stop being a machine operator who is “trying to fix a hole,” and you become a craftsman who is sculpting the land.
Assess your soil (rocky vs. sandy), assess your jobs (driveways vs. lawns), and invest in the right steel. Your back, your machine, and your customers will thank you.
