We have been running 40 hole Sputnik rims on our tandem, they have covered about 8000 miles now and the rear neeeds replacing.
To be fair they have been reliable and have made a strong wheel but quite a dead feeling to them if that makes sense.
Looking a rebuilding them with either Velocity chukker or Alex g6000 rims, we have the latter on our tandem trike and have taken quite a bit of pounding over the last couple of winters with no problems.