Under requirements of the low rolling rate in first seasonal harvest of ratoon rice, a high clearance wheel-type ratoon rice harvester was designed, which was mainly composed of a rice transplanter chassis, a header, a real, a set of second cutting device, a conveying channel, a set of threshing and cleaning device, a grain bin and an extra external engine. It could realize straw separating, reeling, cutting, transporting, threshing, cleaning, grain conveying and containing. The cutting width was set to be 1600 mm and the feeding rate to be 1.4 kg/s according to the agronomic requirements in the first seasonal ratoon rice harvest. In addition, the structures of its chassis, header, second cutting device, threshing, and cleaning devices were optimal selected. After analysis the driving stability of the machine on longitudinal down slope, longitudinal up slope and cross slope, the critical overturning angle of down slope was obtained lo be 28.2°, the critical overturning angle of up s lope was 26.7° and the critical overturning angle of cross slope was 29. I 0 . Field test showed that, firstly , the working speed of the machine could reach 0.32- 0.51 mis and the feeding rate could reach I .51 kg/s, that is, the working speed, feeding rate, loss rate, breaking rate could meet the indexes criterion specified in the standard; secondly, the rolling rate was as low as 25%, which was 15% less than the other existing harvesters and could satisfy what was required for the first seasonal harvest of ratoon rice. In addition, since the wheel width was smalJer than the row spacing, the wheels often walked a long the rice row, which contributed to a lower actual rolling rate. This research can provide valuable references for the research and extension of ratoon rice mechanical harvesting technology in the areas of middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, China.