diff --git a/config.tf b/config.tf
index 586e2809a2..2a3b2554d7 100644
--- a/config.tf
+++ b/config.tf
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ variable "tectonic_container_images" {
     kubednsmasq                  = "gcr.io/google_containers/k8s-dns-dnsmasq-nanny-amd64:1.14.4"
     kubedns_sidecar              = "gcr.io/google_containers/k8s-dns-sidecar-amd64:1.14.4"
     kube_version                 = "quay.io/coreos/kube-version:0.1.0"
-    kube_version_operator        = "quay.io/coreos/kube-version-operator-dev:72382525be95671ecafc10b141b7f9e9a37ef01c"
+    kube_version_operator        = "quay.io/coreos/kube-version-operator-dev:4b53e2363d433b04bb22778bc984ec4c1149fe80"
     node_agent                   = "quay.io/coreos/node-agent:v1.7.5-kvo.3"
     pod_checkpointer             = "quay.io/coreos/pod-checkpointer:3517908b1a1837e78cfd041a0e51e61c7835d85f"
     stats_emitter                = "quay.io/coreos/tectonic-stats:6e882361357fe4b773adbf279cddf48cb50164c1"
diff --git a/modules/bootkube/resources/kvo.service b/modules/bootkube/resources/kvo.service
index 35daa5d5f7..12e5a0926f 100644
--- a/modules/bootkube/resources/kvo.service
+++ b/modules/bootkube/resources/kvo.service
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker \
             -v /opt/tectonic:/opt/tectonic \
             ${kube_version_operator_image} \
             /kube-version-operator \
-            --upgrade-spec=/upgrade-spec.json \
+            --upgrade-spec=/upgrade-spec.yaml \
             --version=${kubernetes_version} \
             --cluster-config=/opt/tectonic/kvo-config.yaml \
             --outdir=/opt/tectonic \
diff --git a/modules/bootkube/resources/manifests/kube-version-operator.yaml b/modules/bootkube/resources/manifests/kube-version-operator.yaml
index 96761c2f3d..bb22586648 100644
--- a/modules/bootkube/resources/manifests/kube-version-operator.yaml
+++ b/modules/bootkube/resources/manifests/kube-version-operator.yaml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ spec:
         command:
         - /kube-version-operator
         - --cache-images=true
-        - --version-mapping=/upgrade-spec.json
+        - --version-mapping=/upgrade-spec.yaml
       imagePullSecrets:
       - name: coreos-pull-secret
       securityContext:
diff --git a/modules/tectonic/resources/tectonic.sh b/modules/tectonic/resources/tectonic.sh
index 4736a22bf2..84932b0acd 100755
--- a/modules/tectonic/resources/tectonic.sh
+++ b/modules/tectonic/resources/tectonic.sh
@@ -174,7 +174,6 @@ kubectl create -f stats-emitter.yaml
 
 echo "Creating Operators"
 kubectl create -f updater/tectonic-channel-operator-kind.yaml
-kubectl create -f updater/app-version-kind.yaml
 kubectl create -f updater/migration-status-kind.yaml
 kubectl create -f updater/node-agent.yaml
 kubectl create -f updater/tectonic-monitoring-config.yaml
diff --git a/tests/smoke/cluster_test.go b/tests/smoke/cluster_test.go
index 6a76c4f944..502fa6cafb 100644
--- a/tests/smoke/cluster_test.go
+++ b/tests/smoke/cluster_test.go
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ const (
 var (
 	// defaultIgnoredManifests represents the manifests that are ignored by
 	// testAllResourcesCreated by default.
-	defaultIgnoredManifests = []string{"bootstrap"}
+	defaultIgnoredManifests = []string{"bootstrap", "kvo-config.yaml", "config.json"}
 
 	// experimentalManifests represents the manifests that are ignored by
 	// testAllResourcesCreated when manifestExperimentalEnv isn't set to 'true'.