diff --git a/superduperdb/ext/llm/vllm.py b/superduperdb/ext/llm/vllm.py
index 6aa2529985..c54b61e51e 100644
--- a/superduperdb/ext/llm/vllm.py
+++ b/superduperdb/ext/llm/vllm.py
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@
 from superduperdb import logging
 from superduperdb.ext.llm.base import BaseLLMAPI, BaseLLMModel, BaseOpenAI
 
+__all__ = ["VllmAPI", "VllmModel", "VllmOpenAI"]
+
 VLLM_INFERENCE_PARAMETERS_LIST = [
     "n",
     "best_of",
@@ -119,13 +121,40 @@ class VllmModel(BaseLLMModel):
 
     def __post_init__(self):
         self.on_ray = self.on_ray or bool(self.ray_address)
+        if 'tensor_parallel_size' not in self.vllm_kwargs:
+            self.vllm_kwargs['tensor_parallel_size'] = self.tensor_parallel_size
+
+        if 'trust_remote_code' not in self.vllm_kwargs:
+            self.vllm_kwargs['trust_remote_code'] = self.trust_remote_code
+
+        if 'model' not in self.vllm_kwargs:
+            self.vllm_kwargs['model'] = self.model_name
+
         super().__post_init__()
 
     def init(self):
-        try:
-            from vllm import LLM
-        except ImportError:
-            raise Exception("You must install vllm with command 'pip install vllm'")
+        class _VLLMCore:
+            """
+            Wrapper for vllm model to support ray.
+            Implementing the client in this way will no longer require vllm dependencies
+            """
+
+            def __init__(self, **kwargs) -> None:
+                try:
+                    from vllm import LLM
+                except ImportError:
+                    raise Exception(
+                        "You must install vllm with command 'pip install vllm'"
+                    )
+                self.model = LLM(**kwargs)
+
+            def generate(self, prompts: List[str], **kwargs) -> List[str]:
+                from vllm import SamplingParams
+
+                sampling_params = SamplingParams(**kwargs)
+                results = self.model.generate(prompts, sampling_params, use_tqdm=False)
+                results = [result.outputs[0].text for result in results]
+                return results
 
         if self.on_ray:
             try:
@@ -133,37 +162,37 @@ def init(self):
             except ImportError:
                 raise Exception("You must install vllm with command 'pip install ray'")
 
-            runtime_env = {"pip": ["vllm"]}
+            runtime_env = {
+                "pip": [
+                    "vllm",
+                ]
+            }
             if not ray.is_initialized():
                 ray.init(address=self.ray_address, runtime_env=runtime_env)
 
-            LLM = ray.remote(LLM).remote
+            if "num_gpus" not in self.ray_config:
+                self.ray_config["num_gpus"] = self.tensor_parallel_size
+            LLM = ray.remote(**self.ray_config)(_VLLMCore).remote
+        else:
+            LLM = _VLLMCore
 
-        self.llm = LLM(
-            model=self.model_name,
-            tensor_parallel_size=self.tensor_parallel_size,
-            trust_remote_code=self.trust_remote_code,
-            **self.vllm_kwargs,
-        )
+        self.llm = LLM(**self.vllm_kwargs)
 
     def _batch_generate(self, prompts: List[str], **kwargs: Any) -> List[str]:
-        from vllm import SamplingParams
-
-        # support more parameters
-        sampling_params = SamplingParams(
-            **self.get_kwargs(SamplingParams, kwargs, self.inference_kwargs)
-        )
+        total_kwargs = {}
+        for key, value in {**self.inference_kwargs, **kwargs}.items():
+            if key in VLLM_INFERENCE_PARAMETERS_LIST:
+                total_kwargs[key] = value
 
         if self.on_ray:
             import ray
 
-            results = ray.get(
-                self.llm.generate.remote(prompts, sampling_params, use_tqdm=False)
-            )
+            results = ray.get(self.llm.generate.remote(prompts, **total_kwargs))
         else:
-            results = self.llm.generate(prompts, sampling_params, use_tqdm=False)
+            results = self.llm.generate(prompts, **total_kwargs)
+            results = [result.outputs[0].text for result in results]
 
-        return [result.outputs[0].text for result in results]
+        return results
 
     def _generate(self, prompt: str, **kwargs: Any) -> str:
         return self._batch_generate([prompt], **kwargs)[0]