diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 26ec3b6..b963c80 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -17,15 +17,15 @@ rake_version = '>= 0.9.0'
 if ENV['RAKE_VER']
   rake_version = "~> #{ENV['RAKE_VER']}"
 end
-gem 'rake'                 , "#{rake_version}"
+gem 'rake'                   , "#{rake_version}"
 gem "rototiller", *location_for(ENV['TILLER_VERSION'] || '~> 0.1.0')
-gem 'rspec'                ,'~> 3.4.0'
+gem 'rspec'                  ,'~> 3.4.0'
 
 group :system_tests do
-  #gem 'beaker', :path => "../../beaker/"
-  gem 'beaker'               ,'~> 2.22'
+  gem 'beaker'               ,'~> 3.0'
   gem 'beaker-hostgenerator'
-  gem 'public_suffix', '<= 1.4.6'
+  gem 'public_suffix'        ,'<= 1.4.6'
+  gem 'nokogiri'             ,'<= 1.6.9'
 end
 
 group :development do
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ group :development do
   # restrict version to enable ruby 1.9.3
   gem 'mime-types'           ,'~> 2.0'
   gem 'google-api-client'    ,'<= 0.9.4'
-  gem 'activesupport'        ,'< 5.0.0'
+  gem 'activesupport'        ,'<  5.0.0'
   # restrict version to enable ruby 1.9.3 <-> 2.0.0
   if Gem::Version.new(RUBY_VERSION) < Gem::Version.new('2.0.0')
     gem 'public_suffix'      ,'<= 1.4.6'
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 742c94c..b2f8359 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ rototiller_task :acceptance => [:generate_host_config] do |t|
   t.add_env({:name => 'LAYOUT',   :default => 'centos7-64',
              :message => 'The argument to pass to beaker-hostgenerator',
              :set_env => true})
-  t.add_env({:name => 'RAKE_VER', :default => '11.0',
+  t.add_env({:name => 'RAKE_VER', :default => '12.0',
              :message => 'The rake version to use when running unit and acceptance tests',
              :set_env => true})
 
diff --git a/acceptance/pre-suite/01_install_rototiller.rb b/acceptance/pre-suite/01_install_rototiller.rb
index 7f7143b..866b384 100644
--- a/acceptance/pre-suite/01_install_rototiller.rb
+++ b/acceptance/pre-suite/01_install_rototiller.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-test_name 'install rototiller and rake in a bundle' do
+test_name 'install rototiller' do
   sut = find_only_one('agent')
 
   `gem build rototiller.gemspec`
@@ -8,21 +8,10 @@
   end
   scp_to(sut, gem_name, gem_name)
 
-  rake_version = `rake --version`.split[2]
-  # <sigh> we need to use bundler here to avoid conflicts when installing
-  #   older versions of rake
-  #   holy hell, this is painful
-  on(sut, 'gem install --force bundler')
-  # fetch rake so we can install from local cache
-  on(sut, "gem fetch rake -v #{rake_version}")
-  step 'create a Gemfile using local rototiller and rake version' do
-    create_remote_file(sut, 'Gemfile', <<-GEMFILE)
-      source 'https://rubygems.org'
-      gem 'rake', '~> #{rake_version}'
-      gem 'rototiller'
-    GEMFILE
-    on(sut, 'cat Gemfile')
+  if ENV['RAKE_VER']
+    on(sut, "gem install rake --no-document --version #{ENV['RAKE_VER']}")
+  else
+    on(sut, "gem install --no-document rake")
   end
-  # config local cache to find the two gems
-  on(sut, 'bundle config cache_path ./ && bundle install --local')
+  on(sut, "gem install --no-document ./#{gem_name}")
 end
diff --git a/rototiller.gemspec b/rototiller.gemspec
index 23e1147..0dcb9b6 100644
--- a/rototiller.gemspec
+++ b/rototiller.gemspec
@@ -15,9 +15,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
                         'README.md', 'lib/**/*', 'docs/**/*']
   s.required_ruby_version = '>= 1.9.3'
 
-  #Run time dependencies
-  rake_version = ENV['RAKE_VER'] || '11.0'
   # RAKE_VER=0.9, 10.0, 11.0
   #   don't use 11.0.0, which probably installs 11.0.1 which has issues
-  s.add_runtime_dependency 'rake', "~> #{rake_version}"
+  s.add_runtime_dependency 'rake'
 end