To further improve the adaptability of hillside orchard transporters to complex terrain, a hillside orchard transport vehicle based on center of gravity regulation was designed. Firstly, the overall design of the vehicle and the basic working principle were described according to the actual environment characteristics of hillside orchards. Then, based on the design requirements, the crawler chassis, the movable loading platform, and the control system were designed. The control strategy of the machine's center of gravity was formulated for three cases of straight driving on slopes, crossing obstacles on slopes, and crossing trenches on slopes. Secondly, a virtual simulation of the vehicle was built based on the multi-body dynamics analysis software RecurDyn, the rationality and feasibility of the design scheme and control strategy were verified. Finally, the prototype was tested, and the performance test was conducted. The test results showed that under the slope angle of 10° and the load of 0kg, 50kg, 100kg, and 150kg, after the position of the center of gravity was adjusted, the maximum combined traction force of yawing 45° were 1897.87N, 2139.48N, 2328.92N and 2425.24N, which were increased by 21.11%, 20.65%, 26.40% and 26.93%, respectively, compared with the initial state. The maximum tilt angle of the transport vehicle downhill were 45°, 43°, 42° and 40°, which were increased by 7.14%, 13.16%, 13.51% and 14.29%, respectively, compared with the initial state. The maximum tilt angle of the transport vehicle cross slope were 40°, 38°, 35° and 35°, which were increased by 8.11%, 8.57%, 12.90% and 20.69%, respectively, compared with the initial state. The maximum heights of the transport vehicle over the obstacle uphill were 210mm, 200mm, 200mm and 190mm, which were increased by 10.53%, 25.00%, 33.33% and 46.15%, respectively, compared with the initial state. The maximum widths of the transport vehicle over the trench downhill were 450mm, 480mm,510mm and 520mm, which were increased by 7.14%, 14.29%, 21.43% and 26.83%, respectively, compared with the initial state. Under different load conditions, the movable loading platform and the machine's center of gravity control strategy proposed in this paper could effectively improve the slope driving performance of the transport vehicle and had good terrain adaptability in the actual operating environment of hillside orchards.