I think the 'mini grader' market is being underestimated by a lot of contractors.
I'm an office administrator for a mid-sized civil construction company—about 50 people. I handle all our equipment parts and service ordering. That means roughly $400,000 a year in spend across maybe a dozen different vendors and machinery brands. When I took over purchasing in 2022, I had to quickly learn what equipment actually makes money for us and what sits in the yard.
Honestly, for years, I thought a motor grader was a motor grader. The bigger, the more capable, the better. But after processing orders for five seasons, I'm convinced the shift towards smaller, more nimble graders—like the Leeboy 635 we just bought—isn't a passing trend. It's a direct response to how job sites have changed. The old rules about what you need don't always apply anymore.
The big grader problem: Not enough work, too much cost
Our argument isn't that big graders (the CAT 140s of the world) are bad. They're amazing for building a highway from scratch. The problem is that for the last two years, 60% of our projects have been on tighter, more developed sites: subdivision road maintenance, parking lot rehab, small commercial site prep.
Here's the math that changed my mind. We used to rent a large grader for those jobs. In 2022, the rental cost plus fuel for a 14-foot machine was roughly $400 a day. But the real cost was the inefficiency. That machine was way too big for a 10-foot wide road widening. We were burning extra fuel, the operator was stressing about hitting curbs, and the machine's turning radius meant we needed extra time to reposition.
When we finally leased our Leeboy 635 (the 8-foot moldboard model), the numbers flipped. Our lease payment is lower than the daily rental cost of the big unit. More importantly, we're getting about 30% more linear footage of finished grade per day on those tight sites because the operator can move faster and doesn't have to baby the machine.
"My experience is based on about 200 parts and service orders for grading equipment. If you're doing nothing but 4-lane highway work, you're probably right to stick with the big iron. But for 90% of the jobs I see, the small unit is more profitable."
The 'gantry crane' problem nobody talks about
People often compare smaller pavement equipment to a "gantry crane" vs. a "heron" in terms of reach—one is massive and specialized, the other is more versatile but limited. I get that analogy. But here's where I think the thinking is outdated.
The argument against smaller graders is usually: "You can't handle the big jobs." That's true. A Leeboy 635 isn't your main highway grader. But the counter-argument I've lived is: A big grader can't efficiently handle the small jobs without costing you money.
I’ve seen this in our asphalt paver purchases too. A massive highway paver is a beautiful machine, but mobilizing it for a parking lot job is a logistical nightmare. We actually use a Leeboy asphalt paver for a lot of our smaller overlay work. It's not as fast as a 10-foot screed, but it's up and running in 20 minutes, not two hours.
The "skull crusher" of overhead costs
Everyone focuses on the machine's list price. But in my job, the silent cost killer is support overhead. We have a forklift (or a "skull crusher" as the guys call the old one we use for moving plate compactors), but we have no heavy crane. Every time I had to order a part for the big grader—like a blade or a cylinder—the freight costs were insane because of the part weight. A replacement moldboard for a 14-foot grader costs a fortune to ship.
When I buy parts for the smaller Leeboy 635, they fit on a pallet. They go via standard LTL freight. I've saved nearly $800 in parts shipping costs alone this year. That's not theoretical. That's real savings that go straight to our bottom line.
Industry evolution: The fundamentals haven't changed, but the execution has
What was best practice in 2020—buying one massive machine to do everything—may not apply in 2025. The fundamentals of making a profit haven't changed. You still need to get the grade right. You still need to move material.
But the execution has transformed. Job sites are tighter. Labor is harder to find. Fuel is expensive. In this environment, a machine that is 'right-sized' for the majority of your work is a smarter investment than a machine that is 'over-sized' for everything except the one big job a year.
I know some old-school owners will read this and say I'm overcomplicating things. "A grader is a grader." And they're partly right. The fundamental physics of moving dirt haven't changed. But the economics of moving dirt have.
I think the industry is evolving towards specialization. You're going to see more fleets with a mix of one big primary unit for highway work and two or three smaller units (like the Leeboy 635) for the bread-and-butter commercial and subdivision jobs. It's not a downgrade; it's a targeted upgrade for a more fragmented market. I'm betting my department's budget on it.
