This report is the first study on wide bodied trucks (WBTs), which is a unique type of equipment in China. They are manufactured primarily with locally available diesel engines or batteries, transmissions, and axles, featuring a large hopper on a relatively low chassis.

Traditional off-highway dump trucks have never been widely accepted in the country due to their prohibitively high purchase price and maintenance costs, while on-road dump trucks have never been able to meet the requirements of high efficiency and cope with complex off-highway working conditions. Customers have tried to heighten the tank baffle, but the resulting top heaviness comprises vehicle safety. To provide an alternative solution for short distance material transportation on mining sites, the first WBTs were innovatively created in 2004-2005 on a 6x4 chassis of an on-road dump truck, with strengthened and widened truck bodies and axles.

The increased width of the vehicle body has significantly improved its load capacity, but the prominent feature of the "wide body" exceeds the national standard limit of 2.5 metres. As a result, WBTs are not allowed to travel on the highway, but are instead limited for use in open cast mines or on private land.

The payload capacity of WBTs usually ranges from 20 tonnes to 130 tonnes. Demand for smaller models with payloads under 60 was evident around 20 years ago, while the most popular models in their first decade of use had a gross weight of 70 tonnes. Most suppliers were automobile manufacturers, and not construction equipment manufacturers, as many of them are now.

It should be noted that this study only concerns WBTs that have a rated load of no less than 60 tonnes, or a gross weight of no less than 90 tonnes. Machines of these sizes have only been available in the last decade. The majority of the suppliers now come from the construction equipment industry as part of their product diversification, in order to offset the downturn experienced in their traditional product lines