diff --git a/manifests/config.pp b/manifests/config.pp
index b816abddb..45c1f86d1 100644
--- a/manifests/config.pp
+++ b/manifests/config.pp
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@
   $proxy_cache_path               = false,
   $proxy_connect_timeout          = '90',
   $proxy_headers_hash_bucket_size = '64',
-  $proxy_http_version             = '1.0',
+  $proxy_http_version             = undef,
   $proxy_read_timeout             = '90',
   $proxy_redirect                 = 'off',
   $proxy_send_timeout             = '90',
@@ -107,7 +107,9 @@
   }
   validate_string($multi_accept)
   validate_array($proxy_set_header)
-  validate_string($proxy_http_version)
+  if ($proxy_http_version != undef) {
+    validate_string($proxy_http_version)
+  }
   validate_bool($confd_purge)
   validate_bool($vhost_purge)
   if ($proxy_cache_path != false) {
diff --git a/spec/classes/config_spec.rb b/spec/classes/config_spec.rb
index 2f53eba2c..ba50afa98 100644
--- a/spec/classes/config_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/classes/config_spec.rb
@@ -231,6 +231,12 @@
           :value => '1.1',
           :match => 'proxy_http_version      1.1;',
         },
+        {
+          :title    => 'should not set proxy_http_version',
+          :attr     => 'proxy_http_version',
+          :value    => nil,
+          :notmatch => 'proxy_http_version',
+        },
         {
           :title => 'should contain ordered appended directives',
           :attr  => 'proxy_set_header',
diff --git a/templates/conf.d/proxy.conf.erb b/templates/conf.d/proxy.conf.erb
index bea96fba4..d0801328f 100644
--- a/templates/conf.d/proxy.conf.erb
+++ b/templates/conf.d/proxy.conf.erb
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ proxy_send_timeout      <%= @proxy_send_timeout %>;
 proxy_read_timeout      <%= @proxy_read_timeout %>;
 proxy_buffers           <%= @proxy_buffers %>;
 proxy_buffer_size       <%= @proxy_buffer_size %>;
-proxy_http_version      <%= @proxy_http_version %>;
+<% if @proxy_http_version -%>
+proxy_http_version      <%= @proxy_http_version %>;<% end %>
 <% @proxy_set_header.each do |header| %>
 proxy_set_header        <%= header %>;<% end %>
 proxy_headers_hash_bucket_size <%= @proxy_headers_hash_bucket_size %>;