Book Club Forum Trilogy - what goes where?

Okay, so, I've hit a bit of a wall. I'm 6 chapters in to my book and I must now decide how best to approach this.  It's a trilogy and the original intention was to follow the three main characters from day one up to the finale. However, I'm starting to think that perhaps splitting the timeline into 3 sections may be a more reader friendy way of dealing with this. The length of the book dictates at trilogy - it's fantasy anyway so it has to be a trilogy!  The characters lead 3 separate lives that interweave at key points which is why I thought to address each character at a time but I think it's likely to confuse a reader starting book 2 (assuming book 1 has been read) if I go right back to the start. Has anyone experience of this they would like to share?