diff --git a/ArangoDbConnection.php b/ArangoDbConnection.php
index 0922f24..37d7d76 100644
--- a/ArangoDbConnection.php
+++ b/ArangoDbConnection.php
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ use yii\helpers\ArrayHelper;
 use yii\base\Object;
 
 // set up some aliases for less typing later
-use triagens\ArangoDb\Connection as ArangoConnection;
+
 use triagens\ArangoDb\ConnectionOptions as ArangoConnectionOptions;
 use triagens\ArangoDb\DocumentHandler as ArangoDocumentHandler;
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class ArangoDbConnection extends Object {
     {
         parent::init();
 
-        $this->_connection = new ArangoConnection($this->connectionOptions);
+        $this->_connection = new Connection($this->connectionOptions);
         $this->_collectionHandler = new \triagens\ArangoDb\CollectionHandler($this->_connection);
         $this->_documentHandler = new \triagens\ArangoDb\DocumentHandler($this->_connection);
     }
diff --git a/Connection.php b/Connection.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1868ea1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Connection.php
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace devgroup\arangodb;
+
+use \triagens\ArangoDb\ConnectionOptions;
+
+class Connection extends \triagens\ArangoDb\Connection {
+    public function json_encode_wrapper($data, $options = null)
+    {
+        if ($this->getOption(ConnectionOptions::OPTION_CHECK_UTF8_CONFORM) === true) {
+            self::check_encoding($data);
+        }
+
+        
+        $response = json_encode($data, $options | JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);
+        
+        return $response;
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file