diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 18fcfc5a74e..b173740d054 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -30,13 +30,14 @@ env:
     - MAIN_CMD="python ./testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/mda_nosetests ${NOSE_TEST_LIST1} ${NOSE_FLAGS}; python ./testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/mda_nosetests ${NOSE_TEST_LIST2} ${NOSE_FLAGS}"
     - SETUP_CMD=""
     - BUILD_CMD="pip install -v package/ && pip install testsuite/"
-    - CONDA_DEPENDENCIES="mmtf-python nose=1.3.7 mock six biopython networkx cython joblib nose-timer"
-    - CONDA_ALL_DEPENDENCIES="mmtf-python nose=1.3.7 mock six biopython networkx cython joblib nose-timer matplotlib netcdf4 scikit-learn scipy seaborn coveralls clustalw=2.1"
+    - CONDA_DEPENDENCIES="nose=1.3.7 mock six biopython networkx cython joblib nose-timer"
+    - CONDA_ALL_DEPENDENCIES="nose=1.3.7 mock six biopython networkx cython joblib nose-timer matplotlib netcdf4 scikit-learn scipy seaborn coveralls clustalw=2.1"
     # Install griddataformats from PIP so that scipy is only installed in the full build (#1147)
-    - PIP_DEPENDENCIES='griddataformats'
+    - PIP_DEPENDENCIES='griddataformats mmtf-python'
     - CONDA_CHANNELS='biobuilds conda-forge'
     - CONDA_CHANNEL_PRIORITY=True
     - NUMPY_VERSION=stable
+    - ARCHITECTURE_32BIT=False
 
 
 
@@ -86,8 +87,20 @@ matrix:
            CONDA_DEPENDENCIES=${CONDA_ALL_DEPENDENCIES}
            EVENT_TYPE='cron'
 
+    - os : linux
+      env: NAME='32bits'
+           PYTHON_VERSION=2.7
+           ARCHITECTURE_32BIT=True
+           CFLAGS='-m32'
+      addons:
+        apt:
+          packages:
+            - libstdc++6:i386
+            - gcc-multilib
+
 install:
-  - git clone git://github.com/astropy/ci-helpers.git
+  #- git clone git://github.com/astropy/ci-helpers.git
+  - git clone -b 32bits git://github.com/jbarnoud/ci-helpers.git
   - source ci-helpers/travis/setup_conda.sh
   # additional external tools (Issue #898) -- HOLE
   - |
@@ -99,6 +112,7 @@ install:
   - eval $BUILD_CMD
 
 script:
+  - echo ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
   - cd ${TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR}
   - if [[ $TRAVIS_OS_NAME == 'osx' ]]; then ulimit -S -n 2048; fi
   - echo $MAIN_CMD $SETUP_CMD