On Valley, Zimmatic and Reinke machines I've been around, when you pull the boot off, the spans are still linked by a hook-and-plate setup between the spans. The boot does nothing but maintain a flexible, water-tight seal between spans.

On Reinke machines, (and some others) they used a piece of fiber-stiffened rubber hose, and if you cut off the boot, you need to pick up the outbound span to pull its hook out of the plate on the inboard span (which will have the wheel tower). You then slip the boot over the end of the outbound span, drop the hook back into the plate and pull the boot back, then you put on the compression clamps.

On Zimmatic machines, they have a very flexible rubber boot thingie that you should not need to cut. It is covered by a two-piece aluminum clamshell held together with 1/4" bolts. Pull off the clamshell, push the boot up on the outbound span and you're done.

I've not been around T-L machines. There's a brand new on on a 80 acre field down at the community college and if you're still having problems tomorrow, I'll try to go have a look at that machine and see if I can spot how you pull the boot off a T-L or someone else here who has T-L's can spell it out for you.