A lawn debris vacuum machine having a mobile housing with an inlet chute and a discharge chute, and a motor mounted on the housing that is connected for rotatably driving a vacuum impeller disposed in the housing between the inlet chute and the discharge chute. A thrasher protrudes into the inlet chute and is rotatably driven from the motor to break up debris in the inlet chute which would otherwise be sufficiently large enough to block the inlet chute. A rotating brush is mounted to the housing at the opening of the inlet chute for brushing debris into the inlet chute. The brush is rotatably driven in a direction opposite to the forward direction of the machine's progress.
