If this 8 cubic yard load of dirt is a one-time project, all you need is a shovel and a dump cart. It'll be good exercise.
If this is going to be a regular occurrence, you need something more, but 'something more' is going to cost a lot.
Plan on doing some retaining walls because our lot has a lot of hills. Last year, a bunch of top soil washed away (thanks to a company called 'top turf' screwing up our lawn). The picture doesn't really do it justice, but our lot slopes from right to left, and there's about a 7-8' drop off from the tree line to the road. The erosion was so bad last year, even parts of the drainage ditch that run the length of the front yard got washed away and formed a nice little trench. I'd like to a couple things but not sure it would justify going full compact tractor...maybe a garden tractor would do. I have a friend that works for husqvarna, so I'm able to get decent pricing through their friends and family prices. Maybe that's the best route to go?
What I'd like to do is level the long, sloping section to the left of the house and flatten that out a bit so we have a more usable area for our kids to play in. Along the front walk and maybe left side of the house, I'd like a retaining wall. The area on the right of the yard and to the right of our second garage could use 2 more retaining walls. All in all, we have a full acre with a ton of mature hardwoods, some of which will have to come out, so I'll probably do some hauling to wood pile in the back. The main thing it will be used for is to maintain the lawn...and I want a perfect, lush, spectacular looking lawn that you could lay down and take a nap in if you wanted to. I'm sick of having patchy, weed-ridden, discolored lawns. If I can't make it happen in the next few years, I'll probably just break down and get sod. But the tractor will have to provide an excellent cut, easily climb/descend multiple grades of terrain without destroying the grass, haul brush/wood, and maybe do something like core aeration, etc to keep the lawn looking great.
My last tractor was the YTH46K20 with the 20hp Kohler engine. It was 'ok', but took its fair share of lumps. Ended up giving it away after about 10 years of usage (want to say ~300 hours). Deck was wrecked (broken blade mounts), and always had issues off and on w/ the Kohler valve cover leaking along w/ the carb (the little cylinder under the float bowl that would prevent backfires). It could handle the steep inclines, but loved to slip all over the hills if you did anything but go straight up and down them.
The new husky I'm considering is the 54" Kawi powered Garden tractor. Heard good things about the Kawi engines, but the kohler's seem to have their issues.