diff --git a/lib/restclient/components.rb b/lib/restclient/components.rb
index 5f698cd..4dd391e 100644
--- a/lib/restclient/components.rb
+++ b/lib/restclient/components.rb
@@ -213,14 +213,18 @@ def to_hash
       env['restclient.hash'][:error] = e
       response = e.response
     end
-    # to satisfy Rack::Lint
-    response.headers.delete(:status)
-    header = RestClient.debeautify_headers( response.headers )
-    body = response.to_s
-    # return the real content-length since RestClient does not do it when
-    # decoding gzip responses
-    header['Content-Length'] = body.length.to_s if header.has_key?('Content-Length')
-    [response.code, header, [body]]
+    if response.is_a?(RestClient::Response)
+      # to satisfy Rack::Lint
+      response.headers.delete(:status)
+      header = RestClient.debeautify_headers( response.headers )
+      body = response.to_s
+      # return the real content-length since RestClient does not do it when
+      # decoding gzip responses
+      header['Content-Length'] = body.length.to_s if header.has_key?('Content-Length')
+      [response.code, header, [body]]
+    else
+      response
+    end
   }
 
 end
diff --git a/spec/components_spec.rb b/spec/components_spec.rb
index 2f4858c..cfe58f8 100644
--- a/spec/components_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components_spec.rb
@@ -84,6 +84,16 @@ def call(env)
       RestClient.post "http://server.ltd/resource", 'some stupid message', :content_type => "text/plain", :content_length => 19
     end
     
+    it "should follow redirects" do
+      #see https://github.com/crohr/rest-client-components/issues/17
+      stub_request(:get, "http://server.ltd/resource").to_return(:status => 302, :body => "", :headers => {'Location' => "http://server.ltd/resource/"})
+      stub_request(:get, "http://server.ltd/resource/").to_return(:status => 200, :body => "body", :headers => {'Content-Type' => 'text/plain', 'Content-Length' => 4})
+      response = RestClient.get "http://server.ltd/resource"
+      response.code.should == 200
+      response.headers.should == {:content_type=>"text/plain", :content_length =>"4"}
+      response.body.should == "body"
+    end
+
     describe "and another component" do
       before do
         class AnotherRackMiddleware
@@ -163,6 +173,17 @@ def call(env)
       body.each{|block| content << block}
       content.should == "body"
     end
+    it "should follow redirects" do
+      #see https://github.com/crohr/rest-client-components/issues/17
+      stub_request(:get, "http://server.ltd/resource").to_return(:status => 302, :body => "", :headers => {'Location' => "http://server.ltd/resource/"})
+      stub_request(:get, "http://server.ltd/resource/").to_return(:status => 200, :body => "body", :headers => {'Content-Type' => 'text/plain', 'Content-Length' => 4})
+      status, headers, body = RestClient.get "http://server.ltd/resource"
+      status.should == 200
+      headers.should == {"Content-Type"=>"text/plain", "Content-Length"=>"4"}
+      content = ""
+      body.each{|block| content << block}
+      content.should == "body"
+    end
     it "should not raise ExceptionWithResponse exceptions" do
       stub_request(:get, "http://server.ltd/resource").to_return(:status => 404, :body => "body", :headers => {'Content-Type' => 'text/plain', 'Content-Length' => 4})
       status, headers, body = RestClient.get "http://server.ltd/resource"