diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index e67fa4e..2fdf2bb 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
         <m2st.version>2.0</m2st.version>
         <m2st-gatc-id>UA-11299971-1</m2st-gatc-id>
         <m2st-gatc-config>_setDetectTitle(true)</m2st-gatc-config>
+        <groovy.version>3.0.8</groovy.version>
     </properties>
 
     <dependencies>
@@ -50,10 +51,20 @@
                 </exclusion>
             </exclusions>
 		</dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
+            <artifactId>groovy-json</artifactId>
+            <version>${groovy.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
+            <artifactId>groovy-xml</artifactId>
+            <version>${groovy.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.codehaus.groovy</groupId>
             <artifactId>groovy</artifactId>
-            <version>1.8.8</version>
+            <version>${groovy.version}</version>
             <exclusions>
                 <exclusion>
                     <groupId>org.apache.ant</groupId>
@@ -279,6 +290,9 @@
                 <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                 <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
                 <version>2.9.1</version>
+                <configuration>
+                    <skip>${skip.javadoc}</skip>
+                </configuration>
                 <executions>
                     <execution>
                         <phase>package</phase>
diff --git a/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/EncoderRegistry.java b/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/EncoderRegistry.java
index 6312c4e..d6c277e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/EncoderRegistry.java
+++ b/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/EncoderRegistry.java
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@
 import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
 import org.apache.http.message.BasicNameValuePair;
 import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.DefaultGroovyMethods;
+import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.IOGroovyMethods;
 import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.MethodClosure;
 
 
@@ -186,7 +187,7 @@ else if ( data instanceof Reader && ! (data instanceof BufferedReader) )
             data = new BufferedReader( (Reader)data );
         if ( data instanceof BufferedReader ) {
             StringWriter out = new StringWriter();
-            DefaultGroovyMethods.leftShift( out, (BufferedReader)data );
+            IOGroovyMethods.leftShift( out, (BufferedReader)data );
 
             data = out;
         }
diff --git a/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HTTPBuilder.java b/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HTTPBuilder.java
index 0f9ec9e..6fdfbd5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HTTPBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HTTPBuilder.java
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@
 import org.apache.http.params.HttpParams;
 import org.apache.http.protocol.HttpContext;
 import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.DefaultGroovyMethods;
+import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.IOGroovyMethods;
 import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.MethodClosure;
 
 /** <p>
@@ -617,12 +618,12 @@ protected Object defaultSuccessHandler( HttpResponseDecorator resp, Object parse
             //If response is streaming, buffer it in a byte array:
             if ( parsedData instanceof InputStream ) {
                 ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-                DefaultGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (InputStream)parsedData );
+                IOGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (InputStream)parsedData );
                 parsedData = new ByteArrayInputStream( buffer.toByteArray() );
             }
             else if ( parsedData instanceof Reader ) {
                 StringWriter buffer = new StringWriter();
-                DefaultGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (Reader)parsedData );
+                IOGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (Reader)parsedData );
                 parsedData = new StringReader( buffer.toString() );
             }
             else if ( parsedData instanceof Closeable )
diff --git a/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HttpURLClient.java b/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HttpURLClient.java
index 2f52600..bc5f83f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HttpURLClient.java
+++ b/src/main/java/groovyx/net/http/HttpURLClient.java
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@
 import org.apache.http.params.HttpParams;
 import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.DefaultGroovyMethods;
 import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.EncodingGroovyMethods;
+import org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.IOGroovyMethods;
 
 /**
  * <p>This class provides a simplified API similar to {@link HTTPBuilder}, but
@@ -214,7 +215,7 @@ public HttpResponseDecorator request( Map<String,?> args )
                 // OAuth Sign if necessary.
                 if ( oauth != null ) conn = oauth.sign( conn, body );
                 // send request data
-                DefaultGroovyMethods.leftShift( conn.getOutputStream(),
+                IOGroovyMethods.leftShift( conn.getOutputStream(),
                         body.getContent() );
             }
             finally { conn.getOutputStream().close(); }
@@ -259,12 +260,12 @@ private Object getparsedResult( String method, Object contentType, HttpResponse
             //If response is streaming, buffer it in a byte array:
             if ( parsedData instanceof InputStream ) {
                 ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
-                DefaultGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (InputStream)parsedData );
+                IOGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (InputStream)parsedData );
                 parsedData = new ByteArrayInputStream( buffer.toByteArray() );
             }
             else if ( parsedData instanceof Reader ) {
                 StringWriter buffer = new StringWriter();
-                DefaultGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (Reader)parsedData );
+                IOGroovyMethods.leftShift( buffer, (Reader)parsedData );
                 parsedData = new StringReader( buffer.toString() );
             }
             else if ( parsedData instanceof Closeable )
@@ -439,7 +440,7 @@ public boolean isStreaming() {
                 }
 
                 public void writeTo( OutputStream out ) throws IOException {
-                    DefaultGroovyMethods.leftShift( out, conn.getInputStream() );
+                    IOGroovyMethods.leftShift( out, conn.getInputStream() );
                 }
 
             };