96 Gd. Caravan A/C Noise?

How often do you have to recharge? To me more often than every few years is not normal. You have 2 distinct possibilities here:

1. Oil is lost with the refrigerant as it seeps out so too many refrigerant only charges without adding the proper oil for your system will result in the compressor being oil starved and damaged.
2. You have massively overcharged the system and the noise you are hearing is actually liquid refrigerant slugging the compressor. Not sure how likely this is on a Chrysler expansion valve (TXV/TEV) system.

I charged it this week, but havent had to for I believe about 3 years now. It's something I've done in the past, but this time the noise.

Don't forget that part of A/C servicing is vacuuming out the accumulated water, not just recharging refrigerant. If the accumulator gets filled, the system gets very unhappy (leading to A/C death...).