diff --git a/lib/rails_admin/config/fields/types/serialized.rb b/lib/rails_admin/config/fields/types/serialized.rb
index 3cf5599d1a..2fa52b2b17 100644
--- a/lib/rails_admin/config/fields/types/serialized.rb
+++ b/lib/rails_admin/config/fields/types/serialized.rb
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ class Serialized < RailsAdmin::Config::Fields::Types::Text
 
           def parse_input(params)
             return unless params[name].is_a?(::String)
-            params[name] = (params[name].blank? ? nil : (SafeYAML.load(params[name]) || nil))
+            params[name] = (params[name].blank? ? nil : (RailsAdmin::SafeYAML.load(params[name]) || nil))
           end
         end
       end
diff --git a/lib/rails_admin/engine.rb b/lib/rails_admin/engine.rb
index 69cd31a4fc..0fd84a6834 100644
--- a/lib/rails_admin/engine.rb
+++ b/lib/rails_admin/engine.rb
@@ -7,9 +7,28 @@
 require 'rails'
 require 'rails_admin'
 require 'remotipart'
-require 'safe_yaml/load'
+require 'yaml'
 
 module RailsAdmin
+  # Backwards-compatible RailsAdmin::SafeYAML when SafeYAML isn't available
+  begin
+    require 'safe_yaml/load'
+  rescue LoadError
+    if YAML.respond_to?(:safe_load)
+      SafeYAML = Module.new do
+        def self.load(yaml)
+          YAML.safe_load(yaml)
+        end
+      end
+    else
+      warn "Safe-loading of YAML is not available. Please install 'safe_yaml' or install Psych 2.0+"
+      SafeYAML = Module.new do
+        def self.load(yaml)
+          YAML.load(yaml)
+        end
+      end
+    end
+  end
   class Engine < Rails::Engine
     isolate_namespace RailsAdmin
 
diff --git a/rails_admin.gemspec b/rails_admin.gemspec
index ab2ba79353..bc85cc0480 100644
--- a/rails_admin.gemspec
+++ b/rails_admin.gemspec
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.add_dependency 'rack-pjax', '~> 0.7'
   spec.add_dependency 'rails', '~> 4.0'
   spec.add_dependency 'remotipart', '~> 1.0'
-  spec.add_dependency 'safe_yaml', '~> 1.0'
   spec.add_dependency 'sass-rails', ['>= 4.0', '< 6']
   spec.add_development_dependency 'bundler', '~> 1.0'
   spec.authors = ['Erik Michaels-Ober', 'Bogdan Gaza', 'Petteri Kaapa', 'Benoit Benezech', 'Mitsuhiro Shibuya']