diff --git a/valve/rcon.py b/valve/rcon.py
index ccd808f..39fd0a2 100644
--- a/valve/rcon.py
+++ b/valve/rcon.py
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ def text(self, text):
 
         :raises UnicodeEncodeError: if the string cannot be encoded as ASCII.
         """
-        self.body = text.encode(self.ENCODING)
+        self.body = text.encode(encoding=self.ENCODING, errors='ignore')
 
     def encode(self):
         """Encode message to a bytestring."""