diff --git a/test/integration/typeconv_funcs.bats b/test/integration/typeconv_funcs.bats
index dbb83c15c..add034697 100644
--- a/test/integration/typeconv_funcs.bats
+++ b/test/integration/typeconv_funcs.bats
@@ -18,16 +18,30 @@ function teardown () {
   [[ "${output}" == "true" ]]
 }
 
-@test "toJSONPretty" {
-  gomplate -i '{{ `{"hello": "world"}` | json | toJSONPretty "   " }}
-{{ toJSONPretty "" (`{"hello": "world"}` | json) }}'
+@test "'toJSON' can handle nested maps" {
+  gomplate -i '{{ "foo:\n bar:\n  baz: qux" | yaml | toJSON }}'
   [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
-  [[ "${output}" == "{
-   \"hello\": \"world\"
+  [[ "${output}" == '{"foo":{"bar":{"baz":"qux"}}}' ]]
+}
+
+@test "'toJSONPretty' can handle nested maps" {
+  gomplate -i '{{ `{"foo":{"bar":{"baz":"qux"}}}` | json | toJSONPretty "   " }}
+{{ toJSONPretty "" (`{"foo":{"bar":{"baz":"qux"}}}` | json) }}'
+  [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+  [[ "${output}" == '{
+   "foo": {
+      "bar": {
+         "baz": "qux"
+      }
+   }
 }
 {
-\"hello\": \"world\"
-}" ]]
+"foo": {
+"bar": {
+"baz": "qux"
+}
+}
+}' ]]
 }
 
 @test "indent" {
diff --git a/typeconv.go b/typeconv.go
index 76739b3f3..71cf34a82 100644
--- a/typeconv.go
+++ b/typeconv.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
@@ -9,6 +10,8 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 
 	yaml "gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
+
+	"github.com/ugorji/go/codec"
 )
 
 // TypeConv - type conversion function
@@ -74,19 +77,26 @@ func marshalObj(obj interface{}, f func(interface{}) ([]byte, error)) string {
 	return string(b)
 }
 
+func toJSONBytes(in interface{}) []byte {
+	h := &codec.JsonHandle{}
+	h.Canonical = true
+	buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
+	codec.NewEncoder(buf, h).Encode(in)
+	return buf.Bytes()
+}
+
 // ToJSON - Stringify a struct as JSON
 func (t *TypeConv) ToJSON(in interface{}) string {
-	return marshalObj(in, json.Marshal)
+	return string(toJSONBytes(in))
 }
 
 // ToJSONPretty - Stringify a struct as JSON (indented)
 func (t *TypeConv) toJSONPretty(indent string, in interface{}) string {
-	b, err := json.MarshalIndent(in, "", indent)
-	if err != nil {
-		log.Fatalf("Unable to marshal object %s: %v", in, err)
-	}
+	out := new(bytes.Buffer)
+	b := toJSONBytes(in)
+	json.Indent(out, b, "", indent)
 
-	return string(b)
+	return string(out.Bytes())
 }
 
 // ToYAML - Stringify a struct as YAML
diff --git a/typeconv_test.go b/typeconv_test.go
index 85620b7cd..47907ce46 100644
--- a/typeconv_test.go
+++ b/typeconv_test.go
@@ -68,9 +68,9 @@ func TestToJSON(t *testing.T) {
 		"foo":  "bar",
 		"one":  1,
 		"true": true,
-		"down": map[string]interface{}{
-			"the": map[string]interface{}{
-				"rabbit": map[string]interface{}{
+		"down": map[interface{}]interface{}{
+			"the": map[interface{}]interface{}{
+				"rabbit": map[interface{}]interface{}{
 					"hole": true,
 				},
 			},