The invention discloses a device and method for detecting and testing the running resistance of a hull model of a ship-shaped tractor. The device comprises a paddy field soil tank, a traction device,a data acquisition device and hull models, wherein the traction device is arranged at one end of the paddy field soil tank, a series of hull models with different grounding angles and different curvature radiuses form a hull model set, and various working conditions of the paddy field are obtained through changing the type of soil in the paddy field soil tank, the saturated moisture content of thesoil, the surface water depth and the standing time. The device can perform resistance detection on hull models with different structures under different grounding specific pressures, traction speedsand paddy field environmental conditions, so that the running resistance of different types of ship-shaped tractors is obtained. The device is compact in structure, the traction speed can be adjustedin a stepless manner and synchronously recorded with the pulling force, and the requirements of various types of ship-shaped tractors for running resistance measurement are met. The device can also be applied to measuring influences imposed on the running resistance by paddy field environmental conditions and hull structure parameters.